A man told the Bloody Sunday inquiry today he saw Father Edward Daly, the former Bishop of Derry, throw himself over an injured boy to protect him from British army gunfire.
Mr Robert Gallagher, who was aged 26 when he went on the 1972 anti-internment march in Derry, told the Saville Inquiry he was running from soldiers entering the Bogside when he witnessed the death of teenager Jackie Duddy.
He saw the 17-year-old trip and fall in a car park at Rossville flats in the Bogside, Mr Gallagher said.
"At first I did not realise the lad had been shot. However, he fell on to his face. The next moment I was aware of seeing blood on his back and realised he must have been shot," he said.
Mr Gallagher saw the then Father Edward Daly, run to the fallen teenager to administer the Last Rites.
"I then heard a heavier more intense burst of fire. When this occurred, Father Daly threw himself over the lad," he said.
"My first thought was that Father Daly had also been shot, but as the intense shooting died down he knelt back up and continued with the Last Rites," he said.
Moments later in the same area he saw one of the Bloody Sunday wounded Mr Michael Bridge remonstrate with soldiers.
Mr Gallagher said Mr Bridge stepped out from behind a wall with his arms in the air.
"I heard him shout ‘Jesus, Jesus, don't shoot the priest, shoot me’. The next moment I saw his legs judder as if they had been hit with something and he stumbled back to where he had come from," he said.
PA