The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland, a collection of essays on the state of the peace process, has been launched in Belfast.
The book, compiled by Prof Marianne Elliott of the Institute of Irish Studies in Liverpool, brings together a series of lectures delivered at the university between 1996 and 2000.
These lectures were dedicated to the memory of Mr Torkel Opsahl, who headed the 1993 Opsahl Commission which looked for a way forward in Northern Ireland. He died shortly after the commission reported.
The publication includes contributions from many of those who played leading roles in those negotiations, including Senator George Mitchell, Senator Maurice Hayes, Mr Niall O'Dowd, Mr Kevin McNamara MP, Mr Peter Mandelson MP, Dr Martin Mansergh and others.
Running through many of the items is the theme that contributions from outside "third parties" in conflict resolution can make a difference.
In her address at the book launch, Prof Elliott recalled Seamus Heaney had said Northern Ireland was moving from the atrocity to the messy, adding that the messy was a good place to be in relation to the recent past.
The book was also launched by Dr Martin Mansergh, the Taoiseach's adviser on Northern Ireland, and by Mr Ray Bassett and Mr Chris McCabe of the British-Irish Secretariat.