David Sharrock, The Times's correspondent in Northern Ireland, says that scepticism from the Loyalist community and beyond cannot diminish the significance of today's announcement

"I have been covering the situation in Northern Ireland over almost ten years and there is no sense of this being an epoch-making announcement.

"We have heard all of this so many times before that there's a kind of 'disarmament fatigue' and now the moment has finally arrived it no longer has any great impact.

"This is not like the day in 1994 when one day bombs were going off and the next there was a ceasefire. That was dramatic. The Provisional IRA has not carried out a major attack or bombing for nearly ten years so while everyone is saying this is an historic moment, it doesn't feel like it.

"Unfortunately, there is also the track record of the IRA: it hasn't said that it is going to disband, which can only mean that it's going to continue apparently as an army without arms.

"We know that the IRA is a major criminal organisation and the speculation is that even with the political struggle officially over it will continue to carry out the operations - drug-dealing, extortion, robberies and so on - that it has become so good at.

"That said, however, this is the first time in the history of any type of IRA - and there have been many of them over the past 100 years - that it has not only dumped its weapons but actually destroyed them in a verifiable form with outside observers.

"This goes way beyond what has happened with any previous IRA disarmament; we have heard before of the order going out for branches to dump the weapons but to keep them in store, and well-greased, for a resumption of the armed campaign at a later date.

"This time what we are seeing is a very clear and categorical statement that sets a seal on the statement of July in which it announced it was finally ending its campaign.

"There are those who argue that getting rid of weapons is symbolic more than anything else because it's so easy to go to the international market, particularly Eastern Europe, and re-arm. However, even if only in terms of symbolism it sends out a very powerful message which will perhaps be heard most clearly by its own supporters that this is a turning point.

"The Reverend Ian Paisley and the Democratic Unionist Party have taken over from the Ulster Unionists, as the public has been disillusioned years of broken promises and ebbing confidence in the peace process. The DUP will undoubtedly strike a pessismistic note but while there is scepticism it will be impossible for them to write this off as a meaningless gesture."

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