IRA statement delivered by DVD

In a departure from tradition, today's IRA statement on ending all armed activity came in the form of a DVD which featured ex-prisoner Seana Walsh reading it.

The IRA insisted that its 36-year armed campaign had been entirely legitimate. It acknowledged many people had suffered in the conflict, including republicans.

The statement said: “There is a compelling imperative on all sides to build a just and lasting peace.”

The Provisionals addressed nationalist and republican concerns that the groundbreaking moves from the IRA would affect the defence of their communities from attack.

The IRA stressed there was a responsibility on everyone to ensure that there was no re-occurrence of what it called “the pogroms of 1969 and the early 1970s. There is also a universal responsibility to tackle sectarianism in all its forms.”

Mr Adams was expected to urge at a press conference in Dublin today that everyone involved in the peace process should recognise the historic nature of the IRA’s move.

But unionists, particularly the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists, will be sceptical about the IRA statement and will demand proof that its words will be matched by deeds.