President Mary McAleese has said she is 'persistently optimistic' that the Northern Ireland parties will be able to reach a deal on the restoration of the Stormont Assembly by the November deadline.
Speaking in London where she was addressing the English Law Society, Mrs McAleese referred to what she called 'the extraordinary will for peace that has been exhibited by the people of Northern Ireland'.
The President said that its effect was 'too strong to do anything other than deliver the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement'.
Mrs McAleese added: 'I have every hope that come November we are going to see the sea change that so many of us have been hoping and waiting for. I am very, very hopeful.'
During her speech the President warned that the rule of law should not be allowed to collapse under the pressure to respond to terrorism.
She urged lawyers to be what she described as 'courageous champions of a rule of law which never loses sight of the individual' and said the greatest victory for the terrorist would be if the rule of law itself were to collapse the rights and freedoms of the individual.
Mrs McAleese single out the murdered Northern Ireland defence solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson as 'awesomely, miraculously, stunningly independent and unafraid'.
