The IRA might have been on the brink of an historic announcement but there was no sign of excitement in West Belfast last night. It was a Friday night like any other. Couples walked hand-in-hand down the Falls Road on their way to pubs and discos.
People went about their normal business but there was no buzz on the streets.
"Its been quiet around here since Drumcree," complained a taxi driver. "Everyone seems to be staying at home at night. You would think that a bloody ceasefire would bring them out."
A middle-aged woman in St James's Park said she was delighted another ceasefire was imminent. "I've been hoping for it since the last one broke," she said. "I was down at Clonard novena every night a few weeks ago, praying away. God must have been listening."
Her daughter-in-law said a ceasefire was vital for the next generation. "I have two kids. I don't want them to grow up where people are killing each other. I want them to have a normal life, like children everywhere else. I don't want them to have to emigrate halfway across the world for a job and a decent future.
"I don't want to worry about them when they are out late at night, I don't want to be thinking that they might never come home."
However, Paul (18) from Lenadoon, said he was opposed to a new IRA ceasefire.
"After what happened on the Garvaghy Road, the Provos should be giving it to the Brits, not giving up," he said. "I don't know what's wrong with the Provos. They let the nationalist people be kicked in the teeth and they don't hit back".
Colm (27) was also against a ceasefire. "Armed struggle shouldn't stop until the British leave Ireland," he said. A middle-aged man on the Glen Road didn't see the point in the IRA campaign continuing but he still wasn't optimistic about the future. "This State is corrupt to the core. Catholics will never have equality here."
Jim Murphy, from Andersonstown, said it was important that the British Labour Party was now in power. "Tony Blair wants to be a success and he will try to sort things out over here. If he brought peace to Ireland, he would be guaranteed a place in history. Mo Mowlan messed up over Drumcree but she should be given another chance. No one wants more violence."
Kathleen McMahon said that whatever the republican leadership decided was good enough for her. "If Gerry Adams thinks that another ceasefire is needed, I wouldn't argue with him."
A woman on the Springfield Road hoped the British government would respond "more generously" to this IRA ceasefire.