After meeting Sinn FΘin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, in New York yesterday, prominent Irish-American supporters of Sinn FΘin said they expected a statement on arms decommissioning from the IRA as early as today.
Mr McGuinness, who is also Minister of Education in the Northern Assembly, told journalists and several leading Irish-American activists at a press conference in Manhattan that Irish republicans must think through strategically the issue of decommissioning.
This remark seemed directed at a number of long-standing Sinn FΘin supporters - many of whom have expressed doubts about the peace process - who attended the event in a room above Rosie O'Grady's Saloon on 52nd Street and Broadway. He and Mr Adams "have put to the IRA the view that if it could make a ground-breaking move on the arms issue, that this could save the peace process from collapse and transform the situation," Mr McGuinness said.
The language was identical to that of Sinn FΘin leader Mr Gerry Adams at a press conference in Belfast earlier yesterday. The visit of Mr McGuinness to New York had overtones of the occasion in 1994 when veteran Irish Republican Mr Joe Cahill was given a special visa to explain to IRA and Sinn FΘin supporters in the US the logic of the IRA ceasefire.
Today Mr McGuinness will be in Washington, where he will meet the Bush administration's point man on Northern Ireland, Mr Richard Haass, and members of Congress.
Sinn FΘin has come under pressure from prominent Irish Americans for an IRA move on arms, and this has increased since the attacks on New York on September 11th; the damaging publicity over the arrest of three republicans in Colombia; and Mr Adam's plans to visit Cuba.
Mr Bill Flynn, who has not disguised his impatience over the issue, said after meeting with Mr McGuinness that he was "encouraged" by yesterday's move but worried that they were being asked once again to be patient.
Mr McGuinness said he recognised that a major arms move would be difficult for the IRA, but it was requested in the interests of creating a context in which trust and confidence could be built.
"There will be a responsibility on all of us who support the peace process in Ireland, here in the US and internationally, to respond to that new and transformed situation to ensure that the change promised in the Good Friday agreement is realised; that the rejectionists and the opponents of peace, unionist, republican and the British establishment, are faced down; that the minimalism is ended; that the peace process moves decisively forward; and that the Good Friday agreement is belatedly but urgently implemented in full." he said.
Mr McGuinness said they would have to see demilitarisation in south Armagh in particular. He would not give details on when an IRA response could be expected but pointed out that after six days the resignation of unionist ministers in Northern Ireland would become irreversible and if there was no move by the end of the week they could see the collapse of the institutions of the Good Friday agreement.
Mr McGuinness underlined the importance of the institutions by pointing out that he would return to Belfast on Wednesday to receive the Burns Report on education in Northern Ireland, which was arguably the most important work of the Assembly and would affect the lives of Protestant and Catholic Children.
He extended his sympathy "to all who have suffered as a result of the events of September 11th and to reiterate here, in this city that has suffered so much, our total and unequivocal condemnation of the terrorist attacks on this country."
Ms Rita O'Hare, Sinn Fein representative in the US, said that the transfer to New York from Washington of the Sinn FΘin US office was for reasons of efficiency only.
The September 11th incident and negative publicity has endangered Sinn Fein's fund-raising capacity. Funds raised at the annual Friends of Sinn FΘin dinner in New York this year will be given to construction workers, several of whom died in the World Trade Centre disaster.