What the papers say

Journalist Andy Wood reviews Wednesday's morning newspapers.

This is a day that newspapers love: a major story; an obvious lead that they can play big... and play it big they do.

The Irish News front page has one headline - "Beyond Use" - one picture, of General John de Chastelain presenting the report of the International Decommissioning Body, and one story, from political editor William Graham.

It says the IRA start on decommissioning marks "a seismic change in the peace process" - one which has, in effect "saved the battered process".

From this day on we can bury the painful past

Irish News

On inside pages there's wide coverage for remarks by the various principal players in the process:

"The peace process is not perfect, but it's a damned sight better than the alternative which is no process at all" - that's from Tony Blair. And, from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern: "the IRA's announcement - and its confirmation by General de Chastelain will give the Northern Ireland Executive and cross-border bodies a new lease of life".

But the paper also makes it clear the welcome is not universal. It carries the views of former IRA prisoner Antony McIntyrre who says the IRA move is "the last installment of a process of surrender".

Republican Sinn Fein President Ruari O Bradaigh calls it "the worst sell out yet - unprecedented in Irish history".

View across the border

But at least the Irish News leader - which is headed "From this day on we can bury the painful past", ends on a positive note, talking of "grounds to believe that our future will be much more peaceful than our past.

Moving south and the Irish Times has the accurate, if wordy, "NI leaders unite to welcome IRA's historical arms move " (historical - do they mean historic?) and the Irish Independent has the altogether punchier "Provos choose peace" over a chilling close up of a heavy machine gun.

In terms of impact, I'd say the News Letter front page is the local, and indeed all-Ireland, winner.

The familiar posed picture of a Provo gunman looking down the sights of his Armalite; quotes from David Trimble ("This is the day we were told would never happen but I always believed it would") and Tony Blair ("You can be sceptical but maybe the right thing today is to be hopeful").

For all but the incurably paranoid that the IRA HAS decommissioned some arms

News Letter

And then there is General de Chastelain's key words: "The IRA has put a quantity of arms completely beyond use."

But the page one headline leaves room for doubt, asking "Farewell to Arms?" Unlike the title of the Hemingway novel, the News Letter's version carries the qualifying addition of a question mark.

The leading article - which notes that there are still many "vital questions" unanswered, says it's "absolutely, clearly, unmistakably incontrovertibly true (for all but the incurably paranoid) that the IRA HAS decommissioned some arms".

The leader concludes that the stakes in this poker game have been "mercifully lowered".

Drug puns

An inside page story, noting that the IRA announcement came on the eighth anniversary of the Shankill Road fish shop bomb, focuses on Alan McBride, who lost his wife and father-in-law.

He tells the papers the greatest thing that could happen to him and other victims would be "no more terrible atrocities like the Shankill bomb".

Most of the cross-channel papers choose to lead on yesterday's developments here.

"Our war is over" is how the Mirror headlines its coverage. The Guardian opts for David Trimble's "This is the day we were told were never happen" quote.

But it's Home Secretary David Blunkett's announcement that he wants to see cannabis downgraded to a "class C" drug which gives the tabloid headline writers the chance for a pun or two: "Land of Dope and Glory" is the Daily Star's version; "Gone to pot" is how the Daily Express puts it.

Not to be left out, the cartoonists are in on the act too. In the Independent a sheep - joint in mouth - is pictured telling his friend: "It helps me forget about Margaret Beckett" and in the Guardian there's a new twist on an old question as a housewife is shown asking the visiting clergyman: "More pot vicar?"