NI holds its breath

		By Kevin Connolly BBC Dublin correspondent

Gerry Adams figures large on the global stage these days, from the White House to Downing Street.

But he remains an astute grass roots politician too - he could not retain his grip on the republican movement in Ireland if he was not.

It showed in his speech to senior republicans in Sinn Fein's West Belfast heartland in which he revealed that he and Martin McGuinness had told the IRA that a groundbreaking move on the arms issue could save the peace process.

It was... a moment with genuine historical resonance

It was dressed up with a great deal of republican rhetoric about how the IRA does not bow to pressure and about how it does not move to British or Unionist pressure.

But there it was, in a movement which sees itself as the modern representative of a physical force tradition in Ireland stretching back centuries, a moment with genuine historical resonance.

The two key figures in the republican movement saying publicly that the time has come for a the IRA to make its move on the weapons question.

It is the issue which has threatened the survival of the power-sharing institutions from the very moment they were born.

Pressure

Unionists have always said that they would not in the long-term share power with a rival party which had at its back a private army.

They have kept up the pressure on the republicans with a range of tactics.

First David Trimble as first minister banned Sinn Fein from meetings of North-South ministerial bodies, then he resigned.

Then the other Ulster Unionist members of the executive walked out.

Under the rules which created devolved government here, power-sharing will collapse unless those ministers choose to resume office before midnight on Thursday.

Not for the first time in the peace process, Northern Ireland is holding its breath waiting to hear from the IRA

They will want to know exactly what the IRA has done before that moment. There is an unappeasable wing of Unionism led by Ian Paisley which will remain sceptical.

The question for the immediate future is whether republicans are planning to go far enough to satisfy the Unionist middle ground.

We can expect to hear within the near future from General John de Chastelain, the Canadian army officer who's been charged with overseeing the weapons issue.

He is the man who will be present when any IRA operation to put arms beyond use - perhaps by sealing bunkers with concrete - is undertaken. His professional word will be the only evidence the politicians get.

Not for the first time in the peace process, Northern Ireland is holding its breath waiting to hear from the IRA. For once, it is waiting in a positive frame of mind.