Provisional IRA members I spoke to, whether in Belfast, Derry, Tyrone or south Armagh, were almost monotonous in their response to questions about arms decommissioning, frequently repeating the same phrase: "Not a bullet, not an ounce."
A west Belfast IRA activist says: "We are probably more loyal to the leadership here than in any other part of the 32 counties but I don't know a single volunteer in favour of decommissioning. Views are very, very strong on this one."
Those who know the Sinn Fein leadership well don't doubt they are willing to make a gesture on decommissioning to help the peace process. But a senior republican figure in south Armagh believes they are in a difficult position.
"The leadership are caught between a rock and a hard place. If they don't decommission, their political careers are over. If they do, there will be a split. It's a question of which they think is the least damaging option for them." Despite media reports to the contrary, Sinn Fein leaders haven't totally ruled out decommissioning. In carefully chosen words, they have rejected it as a precondition to entry into the new executive.
In recent years the leadership has managed to bring republican grassroots to compromises many observers believed impossible.
They secured two ceasefires and an important policy change allowing Sinn Fein representatives to enter Stormont.
"We have accepted compromises in the past for the sake of peace," says a low-ranking IRA source. "But decommissioning is different. They are asking us to surrender. You can't underestimate the emotiveness of this subject for republicans."
A substantial arms handover is not on the cards but even a token gesture of a few rusty guns, or the Provisionals themselves blowing up a small quantity of home-made explosives in the presence of Gen de Chastelain, will cause difficulties.
A former IRA prisoner, Mr Anthony McIntrye, says: "Even decommissioning a small amount of weapons - less than has been lost in the average arms seizures by the RUC - presents problems.
"Republicans would be effectively giving the British the moral high ground. They would be criminalising their own previous struggle. They would be saying `we were the bad guys, you were the good guys'.
"It would be a situation where the guns used by people like Frankie Hughes [an IRA hungerstriker] were decommissioned but the guns used on Bloody Sunday weren't."
A Provisional IRA member in west Belfast says: "I have supported the peace process until now but I could never agree with decommissioning.
"It was IRA guns that brought Sinn Fein to the negotiating table in the first place. Nobody would ever have listened to what they were saying without the armed struggle. By decommissioning we would be saying the armed struggle was wrong and we were defeated - which we weren't.
"The guns are silent so what is the problem for the unionists and the British? They just seem to want to rub our noses in the dirt."
Most anger among Provisional grassroots is directed outwards - towards the Ulster Unionists and the British government.
While there is no major split in the ranks over the stalemate in the peace process, there are tensions. There have been several fist fights between Provisionals in south Armagh.
The leading republican Mr Brian Keenan addressed the Easter Sunday commemoration at Innis keen, Co Monaghan. Local republican sources say both his presence and his militant speech were an attempt to pacify hardliners in the area, who are becoming disillusioned. The Provisionals remain firmly in control in the North but the dissidents are securing new pockets of support.
In a significant development, the newspaper of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Sovereign Nation, went on sale in west Belfast for the first time at the weekend.
While the Provisional IRA in Belfast remains united, sources predict divisions in the event of decommissioning. "I'm not saying there will be a major split down the middle but there will be people who will resign if there is decommissioning of any description," says one activist. "Some will just walk away and others will walk elsewhere."
Feelings on decommissioning are running particularly high in north Belfast, where nationalists have long felt vulnerable.
These feelings have intensified with recent bomb attacks by the Red Hand Defenders. "It's crazy for anyone to even suggest decommissioning when the loyalists are on the rampage," says a republican in north Belfast.
An IRA source in west Belfast says: "It wasn't the IRA who killed Rosemary Nelson yet we're the ones being told to decommission. I don't think the Army Council will decommission. If it does, I suppose some volunteers will accept it grudgingly. Others will join the dissidents. But it will really mean the end of the IRA."