Ivan Averill Cooper (5 January 1944 – 26 June 2019) was a civil rights activist and Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland. He was a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). He is often known for leading the civil rights march on 30 January 1972 that developed into the Bloody Sunday massacre.
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Early years
Cooper was born in Claudy, County Londonderry, into a working-class Protestant family who were members of the Church of Ireland. He was brought up in nearby Killaloo, before he and his family moved in 1956 to the Bogside area of Derry city. He was briefly a member of the Claudy Young Unionist Association until April 1965 when he joined the Northern Ireland Labour Party. As the Labour candidate in the Stormont general election that year, he attracted a moderate amount of cross-community support but was not elected.
He was the husband of Frances and had two daughters, Sinead and Bronagh.