Friday, April 22, 2011

Former Derry bishop pens second volume of his memoirs

The former bishop of Derry Dr Edward Daly has written a second volume of his autobiography, which will be published shortly.

A Troubled See, being published by Four Courts Press, will focus on Dr Daly’s years as bishop of Derry and his role after retirement for health reasons as a chaplain at the Foyle Hospice.

Dr Daly, who was a curate in Derry on Bloody Sunday and appeared on the media across the world waving a handkerchief, has already chronicled his years as a priest in an earlier book entitled Mister, Are You a Priest?, which appeared in 2000.  

His latest 100,000-word memoir will chart his experience as a bishop for 20 years, and a hospice chaplain for 17 years since he stepped down from the See of Derry. 

He said that writing the book was a “remarkably therapeutic and relaxing experience which was amazingly fulfilling” though “at times, a very poignant experience for me.”

“I enjoy writing immensely,” he said.  “It’s a labour of love.  There’s nothing I like better than, in the evening, putting on some music and sitting down to write.”

Bishop Daly said he was “taken aback” by the success of Mister, Are You A Priest? which recalled his life up to his appointment as bishop in 1974 and sold more than 25,000 copies.

“I was gobsmacked at just how popular it was.  I didn’t think so many people would be interested.”

Its success made a follow-up inevitable and he worked at in on and off for seven years but brought it to a finish in the past six months, he explained.  

“It was only after the publication of the Saville Report (on Bloody Sunday) that I really focused my mind on it.”

Dr Daly said the book reveals his personal experience of issues and events in which he was personally involved.

“I always cross-reference my recollections with contemporaneous accounts - whether it’s newspaper clippings, letters, sermons and other documents that I have filed away over the years,” he added.

The research meant revisiting “painful experiences” and he refers to a number in the book, but said he learned from having to so.

The retired bishop said that the book will ventilate his views, which “may not be to everyone’s taste,” and that in retirement, he feels free to talk about things that he could not do earlier.

“It is coloured very much by experiences as chaplain at the Foyle Hospice, which have been the most fulfilling of my entire priesthood. Ministry takes on an entirely new dimension in a hospice situation and it has been a wonderful experience. It is a situation in which one is forever learning, forever being challenged: challenged emotionally and physically and, frequently, challenged spiritually.”

Dr. Daly said his own experience of serious illness and cancer has helped him minister to those undergoing similar experiences.