ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the modes by which the elongated process of apology for Bloody Sunday facilitated political expediency. Most significantly, it has been suggested that the evolving narrative proffered by British elites in the process of mea culpa paralleled the Northern Ireland Peace Process, both temporally and in terms of its underlying logic. Beyond the enticement of the Nationalist community, the Saville Inquiry also functioned as device to underscore Britain's supposedly impartial and facilitating role in the Peace Process. One can point to a certain political expediency in the establishment of the Saville Inquiry. The chapter offers argument that, while the findings of the Saville Inquiry are clearly more palatable than that of Widgery Tribunal, the Saville Inquiry's establishment and subsequent apology are no less political in their function. Personality politics and the political use of affected emotion is nothing new, as far back as antiquity, Roman statesmen Cicero advised on the utility of tears in the practice of oratory.
