‘I think Savita would want me to take this case’

He gets abusive mail in his post and meditates. He suffers sleepless nights and goes running. He aches in his heart for his lost wife and fills the place she held there with memories.

The extraordinary strength and calm of Praveen Halappanavar was humbling to hear yesterday as he gave his first interview since the publication of the HSE report into the death of his pregnant wife Savita at Galway University Hospital.

They are also the characteristics that will make him a formidable opponent when he takes his case for negligence to the High Court and his demand for a public inquiry to the European Court of Human Rights.