"Not so much an opening as a beginning of the search for the truth of what happened," was how the British QC, Mr Christopher Clarke, described his marathon presentation, which concluded yesterday as the Bloody Sunday inquiry adjourned until the autumn.
His review of the massive body of evidence gathered so far stretched over more than 40 days and is thought to be the longest opening statement by counsel in British legal history.
It was described by Lord Gifford QC, counsel for the next of kin of one of the Bloody Sunday victims, as "a remarkable feat of personal stamina".
It has set the scene for the hearing of direct evidence by hundreds of military and civilian witnesses about the events of Sunday, January 30th, 1972, in Derry when 13 people were shot dead by British soldiers and a further 13 were wounded, one of whom died later.
Yesterday Mr Clarke repeated that the tribunal is "a free-standing and independent tribunal which has amassed and will consider more evidence about Bloody Sunday, in written and oral form, than any other body, past or present, and will reach its own conclusions on the totality of the evidence before it".
Congratulating Mr Clarke on behalf of the other counsel, Lord Gifford said he had assembled, in a logical way, a vast body of evidence.
"We do have criticisms of some aspects of it, both some of what he has said and some of what he has not said," Lord Gifford added. "A lot of facts have been brought to light but there are some which have not yet been brought to light. We shall deploy those criticisms in our opening statement in September."
The inquiry, which was announced by the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, on January 29th, 1998, will resume on September 4th when hearing of oral evidence by witnesses is expected to begin.
It is being conducted by an international tribunal of judges, chaired by the English law lord, Lord Saville, who is sitting with Sir Edward Somers, a former Court of Appeal judge in New Zealand, and Mr William Hoyt, former Chief Justice of New Brunswick, Canada.
Spokespersons for the Bloody Sunday Trust, which campaigned for many years on behalf of the families of those killed and wounded to have a new inquiry set up, pointed out yesterday that a great deal of important evidence remained to be completed. Legal representatives of the families have not yet seen, for example, the statements of some 300 soldiers which have not yet been signed or otherwise completed.
Mr Liam Wray, whose brother Jim, was among the dead, said the detailed evidence had been quite harrowing at times: "It brings back memories that, to some degree, you've put to the back of your mind because they are horrific."
The detail conveyed the reality of what did happen "and what happened was that my brother and other people were murdered on that day and that matter has not been resolved adequately 28 years on. I sincerely hope that in the next year or two it will be."
The Bloody Sunday inquiry has an Internet site with details of the proceedings on http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.or.uk