After the announcement yesterday morning that one of the Columbia Three was in fact a Sinn FΘin representative, even more headline-worthy news was expected when the party gathered en masse at Conway Mill in Belfast.
Like Labour's unfortunate Spin Doctor Jo Moore, who tried to use the September 11th tragedy to "bury" a bad news story, it seemed as though Sinn FΘin was hoping that movement on the arms issue would detract from less positive developments in Bogota.
By 5 p.m., Conway Mill, a refurbished linen mill at the bottom of the Falls Road, was packed with media and, for the moment at least, the well-timed strategy appeared to be paying off.
Gerry Adams got a standing ovation when he walked into the room with its frilly curtains and bright blue pillars. Camera crews and photographers jostled for position as he stood behind the podium, sweating slightly, to read the speech.
There was no standing ovation when he finished but most of the room joined the polite applause.
Afterwards one Sinn FΘin supporter said the republican community were was "very nervous" and that the IRA should not decommission without movement on other issues.
After his speech, Gerry Adams didn't leave the room straight away, preferring to sip water and swop pleasantries with an elderly gentlemen who had listened to his speech from a chair at his right hand side.
The Sinn FΘin president's companion was 80-year-old Joe Cahill, a convicted IRA gun runner who is seen as the epitome of hard-line republicanism.