It's not every day Sinn Fein has been in a position to claim that the law is on its side. But privately even sources close to Ulster Unionist thinking were allowing that, yes, the Belfast Agreement did not require IRA decommissioning before the "Shinners" could take their seats in a new Northern executive.
There was an odd symmetry between the Adams analysis and previous public statements from such dissident unionists as Mr Robert McCartney and Mr Jeffrey Donaldson on the position in the Agreement.
But while there may be a private acceptance in some unionist quarters that Mr Gerry Adams is right in strict legal terms, there is also a firmly-held view that the politics of the situation makes decommissioning a sine qua non prior to Sinn Fein's entry to the executive.
The row has deflected attention from the remarkable reality that Mr Trimble and Mr Adams will be in the same room in Stormont at noon today for the round-table meeting of Assembly parties. Al- though it is to be held in Mr Trimble's office, insiders said they expected the Deputy First Minister, the SDLP's Mr Seamus Mallon, to do most of the talking.
There is a new unity in Ulster Unionist ranks on the decommissioning issue. Most members of the party's executive in Glengall Street on Saturday were prepared to live with today's round-table meeting and the Trimble-Adams bilateral which will almost certainly take place tomorrow, but the line in the sand is summed up as "no guns, no government".
Some might say it was very clever of Mr Trimble to secure at least tacit assent for a face-to-face with Mr Adams while reassuring supporters that, of course, this did not mean they would end up in government without decommissioning. He secured permission to give way on one front by pledging to hold the line on another.
Sinn Fein had a good start to last week but was beginning to look slightly isolated by the week- end, amid reports that President Clinton and Mr Blair were backing the Trimble approach on arms, obliging the republicans to turn to Dublin for succour and support. Mr Adams, however, said he "wouldn't place too much importance" on such reports. Other political insiders indicated he was probably right.
Meanwhile, it may be an indication of the normalisation of Northern Ireland politics that - notwithstanding the apparent impasse on weapons - the issue of who gets what goodies in the new regime is slowly coming into focus.
Insiders say there will be 10 ministries, the maximum number permitted under the Agreement. At present there are only six devolved departments in the North but it is understood the gurus and civil servants started with the figure of 10 and "worked their way back" to see how the existing structure could be reformed and supplemented.
It's very early days yet, but speculation is already growing over the share-out of ministries. Insiders predict that, if the decommissioning hurdle is surmounted, Sinn Fein will end up with the Health and Education portfolios, with the names of Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun respectively being linked with those two posts.
The UUP and SDLP are en- titled to three ministries each, in accordance with the agreed principles of proportionality. Early bet- ting is on the UUP taking Finance, an environmental brief (the existing Department of the Environment would be divided in two - an administrative and a separate "watchdog" ministry) and perhaps European Affairs. This would leave the SDLP handling Economic Development with the opportunity of promoting the kind of inward investment dear to Mr John Hume's heart; a new ministry charged with overseeing North-South and British-Irish co-operation and one other portfolio. It would be surprising if the SDLP did not arm-wrestle the Ulster Unionists for the European Affairs department, trying to persuade their new partners in government to take the other new ministry being mooted, which would liaise with the Northern Ireland Office and Westminster on non-devolved matters such as security and policing.
The Democratic Unionists have signalled that they will be taking up their entitlement of two executive posts, although their hostility to Sinn Fein in government remains undiminished. Agriculture is a fairly obvious one to go their way. They might also secure an environmental portfolio with an administrative as distinct from a supervisory brief. If the DUP and Sinn Fein both end up in government, meetings of the executive could acquire an air of Lanigan's Ball.
From one point of view, all this horse-trading over ministries and the trappings of office might seem grubby but when contrasted with the last 30 years of violence it can appear almost noble or at least refreshingly mundane.