Books
A Troubled See: Memoirs of a Derry Bishop
Edward Daly
Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds.
Tom Roberts
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A Troubled See: 
Memoirs of a Derry Bishop
Memoirs of a Derry Bishop
Edward Daly
During the 1990s and early 2000s, I traveled frequently to Derry, Northern Ireland, to work with the Inner City Trust and Holywell Trust, two remarkable organizations involved in community development work, helping to organize an international conference, Beyond Hate: Living With Our Deepest Differences (1992).
One of the first people I met in Derry was Bishop Edward Daly, a man I immediately liked – and admired – because, of all things, he had a wonderful ability to remember people’s names, something that often eludes me.
A Troubled See: Memoirs of a Derry Bishop continues the story he began in his bestselling book, Mister, Are You a Priest? (2000). That book focused on his years as a curate in the Bogside, an area in Derry that is part of St. Eugene’s Cathedral parish. “Father” Daly served in that parish during some of the most turbulent and dramatic years of “the troubles” in the north of Ireland. His new book, A Troubled See, covers his years as Bishop of Derry (1974–93) and his current work as Chaplain to the Foyle Hospice in Derry City.
Father, later “Bishop” Edward Daly was closely involved in many of the major events during “the troubles”: Bloody Sunday, the Hunger Strikes of 1980 and 1981, the case of the Birmingham Six, and the Saville Inquiry, which finally resulted in an apology from the British Government for the murder of thirteen people on Bloody Sunday, and the harm and injustice to many more during and after that horrible day. He writes about matters in which he had a significant and direct involvement, describing those experiences as he saw them and the impact those events and everyday living during those times had on him personally. He illustrates the challenges of ministering as a bishop during the protracted conflict, providing a personal and often revealing insight into the difficulties inherent in ministering in such a ‘troubled’ See.
On Bloody Sunday in 1972, Father Edward Daly faced down the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, responsible for shooting dead thirteen unarmed civilians in Derry, waving a white handkerchief as he protected the wounded from the Army’s bullets. Now, four decades later, in his latest book, this retired Roman Catholic Bishop of Derry is confronting an even bigger power than the Paras: the Vatican. What do I mean? Bishop Daly is the first senior Irish Catholic cleric to call for an end to celibacy for priests in the Roman Catholic Church. I wonder what would have happened if he had raised the question of celibacy for priests while he was still the active bishop of the Derry diocese? Would a “white handkerchief” have kept him as safe from the Roman Curia as it did from the British Army?
A Troubled See: Memoirs of a Derry Bishop is a very interesting book, even if you have never been to Ireland, don’t know the city of Derry or its people, or have never personally met Bishop Edward Daly, a wonderful pastoral man and priest. I highly recommend it.
Edward Daly. A Troubled See: Memoirs of a Derry Bishop. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts Press, 2011.