The Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday will be "absolutely critical" to moving the peace process forward, the author of a new book on the events that day has said.
Prof Dermot Walsh, chair of law at the University of Limerick, is the author of Bloody Sunday and the Rule of law in Northern Ireland, which was published in Dublin yesterday.
"If you look back to Bloody Sunday [January 30th, 1972] and the Widgery tribunal, those events did more to damage nationalist confidence in law and justice in Northern Ireland," he said. Prof Walsh said a normal existence could not be restored to the North until the confidence of all in the community in the functioning of law and justice had been restored.
If Lord Saville could make an approach towards uncovering the full truth of what happened at Bloody Sunday, it would be a "major boost" to the peace process, he added.