What the papers say

Journalist Malachi O'Doherty reviews Tuesday's morning newspapers.

Few papers this morning doubt that the IRA is about to decommission its weapons.

The Irish News gives a full front page to the news from Gerry Adams that he has advised the IRA leadership that a ground-breaking move on arms could save the peace process

Nearly half that page goes to the picture of Mr Adams at the bank of microphones against a solemn dark background.

The editorial says it was a day prayed for and worth waiting for.

They will get the generous response they demand if and when a plain spoken community can see that they mean what they say

News Letter

The News Letter divides its front page between that story and pictures of children injured in violence - one a little boy with a stitched scar over a swollen eye.

The story says that Gerry Adams has given the green light for disarmament to begin.

The editorial is circumspect but hopeful.

It says: "They will get the generous response they demand if and when a plain spoken community can see that they mean what they say and that the IRA move is indeed ground-breaking".

London perspectives

The London broadsheets lead with the same story with different perspectives.

The Independent has a large picture of Gerry Adams under a headline that says: "Adams urges IRA to give up arms to save peace in Northern Ireland", as if to imply a fear that the IRA might not respond.

The editorial expresses the fear that the fine words may presage yet another false dawn.

The more sceptical view from the Daily Telegraph has it that the IRA has been forced to concede on arms, and is expected to announce today that it will get rid of some of its weapons.

Inside page analysis by Rosie Cowan in the Guardian and David Sharrock in the Daily Telegraph agrees that the embarrassing arrests in Colombia and the attacks on the United States have forced the pace on a decision republicans were loathed to make.

Speculation

Jim Cusack in the Irish Times is more specific, saying that in the coming days the IRA will permanently seal arms dumps, though it is unlikely that there will be a public destruction of weapons.

There is various speculation on Adams' membership of the IRA army council. Roy Foster, interviewed in the Guardian supplement, sneers at the Adams autobiography: "Like a biography of Field Marshall Montgomery that leaves out the British Army."

This is the era of mean TV and Ann Robinson is its high priestess

Esther Rantzen

The Daily Express and the Daily Star carry childhood pictures of a posturing Madonna, to show, says the Express, that, from the age of five, she had an abundance of hair cut in a variety of styles.

Esther Rantzen declares her feelings about Anne Robinson in a full page feature in the Daily Mail.

She says: "We have been trained to put people at their ease. That has all changed now. This is the era of mean TV and Ann Robinson is its high priestess."

And there is a warmly engaging article in the Independent Review by a journalist who has stalked Ken Dodd around dreary seaside towns where he is still telling gags at the age of 73, and is apparently at the height of his powers, a comic genius.

He still jokes about his tax problems.

"Self assessment?", he says. "They stole that idea from me."