Sir Kenneth Bloomfield has recommended "a beautiful garden surrounding a building dedicated to reconciliation and remembrance" as the most fitting physical memorial to the victims of violence in Northern Ireland.
He stresses in his report that any memorial should not cause further division and that it could not be constructed for some time, "until some of the wounds have begun to heal and our society has clearly moved into a new and more constructive phase". He is not in favour of listing the names of those killed or of mentioning specific events.
"It is a deeply shaming aspect of our recent history that animosity has sometimes been carried beyond the grave, with tombstones or other monuments desecrated and dishonoured," he says.
People have to face "the brutal fact" that they live in a deeply divided society and that the victims "include those who have been actively involved in the conflict" as well as those who were vulnerable because of their work, those who were caught in crossfire and those who were targeted "through random and brutally irresponsible violence".
In such circumstance, any memorial must avoid a note of triumphalism. "In the current circumstance of Northern Ireland, any attempt to incorporate a catalogue of the names of victims in a central memorial would be certain to provide endless controversy and expose a subsequent memorial to a real danger of becoming the target for protest and demonstration; for the paint-thrower or the crude slogan".
Sir Kenneth says he was pleased there was widespread agreement on this among victims and support groups. He recommends that the memorial be easy to reach from every part of the North and from the ports and airports. He says it would preferable if it was in undeveloped countryside, rather than in a town.
The building should be "a striking work of modern architecture", which would also house works of art contributed by communities or countries outside the North, whose citizens had also suffered. It could contain an archive of the Troubles.
Sir Kenneth recommends that the building be beautiful, but also useful, and serve as "a place of tribute, recollection and reconciliation". At yesterday's press conference Sir Kenneth stressed that he was putting forward his suggestion "for consideration", and Dr Mo Mowlam said she believed further consultation was necessary on the issue.