Northern Ireland elected representatives are finally to confront the crucial political issues affecting these islands after 16 months of painstaking wrangling over procedures and paramilitary disarmament.
The breakthrough came late last night when the eight parties to the talks and the British and Irish governments adopted a procedural motion propelling the process on to a substantive agenda.
For once there was consensus among the major players last night that the term "historic" could be used with justification and without exaggeration. However, as the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, said, "it wasn't easy" arriving at the landmark decision.
The talks participants deliberated for more than 12 hours at Stormont before eventually reaching what could rove to be a milestone in British-Irish history.
While the Ulster Unionist Party may continue to try to avoid direct contact with Sinn Fein, at least the main unionist, loyalist, nationalist and republican parties have agreed to endeavour to reach a settlement through the current process.
For several hours yesterday, the talks were bogged down over the issue of consent and, to a lesser extent decommissioning, with the SDLP at loggerheads with the UUP and the two loyalist parties. For a considerable period it appeared that agreement would not be possible.
However, a letter from the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to the leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, Mr Gary Mc Michael, was cited by unionists as providing the necessary reassurance they required on consent.
The letter, while adverting to any agreement being passed in referendums North and South of the Border, also stated that "no proposals would be put to [the British] parliament for ratification and implementation unless they had secured the support of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland in that referendum".
Mr David Trimble and the loyalist parties said this was a crucial re-endorsement of the core principle of consent.
Earlier, the SDLP objected to specific wording on consent proposed by the UUP, UDP and the Progressive Unionist Party. The SDLP feared the wording would place too much emphasis on consent while possibly sidelining other crucial matters such as their arguments for a considerable Irish dimension to any solution.
Eventually the wording was modified to satisfy the SDLP. Sinn Fein, however, voted against an element of the procedural motion because it believed it tried to reintroduce decommissioning as a block to talks, while at the same time insisting it would engage fully in the process.
Notwithstanding the Sinn Fein vote, the motion was passed because it achieved "sufficient consensus", i.e. the support of the main nationalist and unionist parties, the SDLP and the UUP.
As expected, the British and Irish governments rejected the UUP indictment put on Tuesday seeking the expulsion of Sinn Fein. They found there was no "demonstrable dishonouring of Sinn Fein's commitment to the Mitchell Principles" - a decision Mr Trimble described as "risible".
Mr Trimble said it was significant that Sinn Fein voted against the clause on consent while the SDLP accepted the motion. "This is the start of the process of marginalisation of Sinn Fein and the break-up of the pan-nationalist front," he said. "Sinn Fein has taken the first faltering steps towards accepting consent and partition. He also stated that decommissioning had not been sidelined as an issue.
