Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has told senior party members that the public and even republicans have not fully absorbed just how significant was the July IRA statement pledging to end its armed campaign and decommission.
Mr Adams, who is meeting Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin today, said in emphatic terms in a speech in the republican heartland of south Armagh yesterday evening that the IRA, to whom he regularly referred as "the army", would deliver on its July pledges, and that this could prove difficult for republicans.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin confirmation that its chief negotiator Martin McGuinness is travelling to Washington on Tuesday has further intensified speculation that IRA disarmament is imminent and could come as soon as next Wednesday.
On the day before the IRA statement at the end of July, Mr McGuinness also travelled to Washington to be in a position to promote to senior US politicians and to Irish-America the importance of the IRA announcement.
This is seen as just part of a series of events in which Sinn Féin is priming the public and more importantly the republican base for decommissioning.
Today Mr Adams meets the Taoiseach, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, while he will speak at a Sinn Féin Irish unity rally in Dublin tomorrow.
In Mullaghbawn in south Armagh, Mr Adams addressed Sinn Féin Oireachtas, Assembly and European Parliament members. In forceful terms and departing from his generally non-controversial script, he told this Sinn Féin leadership audience that the IRA would meet its pledges to end activity and disarm. "Let me give a clear signal here: 'the army' is going to deliver on its commitments on the armed struggle.
"And republicans are going to hear that in the news. And republicans may feel a sense of deflation. There is nobody going to be cheering. So once that gunk is absorbed we are going to be challenged on [a range] of other issues as well."
Senior republican sources have insisted the historic importance of the July statement has been underestimated and Mr Adams in again departing from his script last night developed this theme.
"This is something that in many, many ways is a potentially huge sea change, not just for us, for the people of the North, but for the entire island. I think it has changed the political context utterly. I don't think republicans have absorbed what it is about. I don't think the media have absorbed what it is about, I don't think our enemies have absorbed what it is about.
"But when 'the army' delivers, when our opponents and our enemies no longer have the IRA to use as an excuse, what are they going to do?"
Mr Adams appeared to suggest that the IRA has formally and fully passed on the responsibility of achieving republican ambitions to Sinn Féin, as in moving solely to the ballot box.
Again going off script he said, "What 'the army' has done is to take a huge step of confidence in the rest of us, that we can actually take this bouncing ball and bring it forward."
He saw IRA moves as bringing major political advances for Sinn Féin. "The potential for significant growth throughout the island is massive. Why can't we have a Sinn Féin cumann in every townland or parish. The fact is that republicans are now in a new era of struggle," added Mr Adams.
One republican source told The Irish Times last night that IRA decommissioning may already be completed.
