In October 1968, Ivan Cooper stood at the head of a Derry civil rights march and pleaded with the police not to attack. Fifty years later, in October 2018, he was applauded in the city as he received a special award from the President in recognition of his contribution to civil rights in the North.

On Wednesday, Michael D Higgins led tributes to the civil rights campaigner, who died in hospital aged 75. He had been in poor health following a stroke a number of years ago.

Mr Cooper was a “beacon of hope” who became “one of the sources of inspiration for all those who took a stand against inequality and injustice”, Mr Higgins said.

Northern secretary Karen Bradley said he was “a passionate campaigner for non-violence and rights for the whole community in Northern Ireland”.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood described Mr Cooper as a man who had been “born to break the mould”.

“He was a working-class Protestant man who saw a common injustice and inequality that had taken root in Protestant and Catholic communities. He dedicated his life to fighting it.”

Ivan Cooper with author Don Mullan, dressed as a priest for a part in the film Bloody Sunday, on the set in Ballymun, Dublin in 2001. Photograph: Frank Miller

From Killaloo, Co Derry, Ivan Cooper was born in 1944. A member of the Church of Ireland, he initially joined the Young Unionists, but swiftly moved to the Northern Ireland Labour Party.

As a manager in a shirt factory in Derry, he witnessed first-hand the discrimination which existed against Catholics and became a prominent member of the civil rights movement in Derry in the 1960s, as well as president of the Derry Citizens’ Action Committee.

His friend, journalist Martin Cowley, said Mr Cooper was “one of the great heroes of the civil rights struggle”.

“He was very much a visionary,” Mr Cowley said. “Coming from a unionist background, he changed his views at an early age and championed the cause of the underdog, at some expense to himself.

“He was utterly non-sectarian in every fibre of his body, and even in the last years of illness he never lost the spark and fire of his belief in the justice of the civil rights demands.”

The DUP’s William Hay told BBC Radio Ulster Mr Cooper was a controversial figure among unionists because he was perceived as having “turned his back on them”, but that he respected his “strong stance on non-violence”.

In 1970, Mr Cooper became one of the founder members of the SDLP as well as one of the party’s MPs. He was a key organiser of the anti-interment march on January 30th, 1972 - Bloody Sunday - and was deeply affected by the killing of 14 marchers by the British army.

“I regard Ivan Cooper as a hero,” said John Kelly, whose brother Michael was among the Bloody Sunday victims.

“He was always there for us. He was one of the stalwart supporters of the Bloody Sunday families, and even in later years, when he was ill, he always made a point of coming to the annual services of commemoration and he was always proud to stand with us.”

The actor James Nesbitt, who played Ivan Cooper in a 2002 film about Bloody Sunday, said he was a Protestant politician “who loved where he came from but was also brave enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with people of all faiths and convictions to fight for civil rights in Ireland”.

Mr Cooper’s funeral will take place in St Peter’s Church, Culmore Road, Derry on Friday at noon, with interment afterwards in Altnagelvin Cemetery.