The President, Mrs McAleese, said her "heart leapt" and then she felt "the most extraordinary sense of relief" when she heard last night's IRA statement.
"It took so much to get here - so many people's lives and so many hurts and wounds and giving. To tell you the God's truth, I feel the most extraordinary sense of relief tonight," she told a hastily convened press conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
Her understanding was that the inclusion of the word implementation in the statement meant "a start has been made". She said: "We are perhaps witnessing the throw of the dice that will take us really and truly past go." Mrs McAleese, who is from Belfast, had "the most ferocious, unassailable faith in the peace process" but during the summer months she worried "the pieces would fall the wrong way".
"When you get the opportunity of a lifetime you have to be sure to use it in the lifetime of the opportunity," she said.
On the people of the North, she hoped that "there is a brighter light in their hearts than there has been for some time," and harked back to the "heady days of the Good Friday agreement when there was all that yes-ness in people".
"Many people wanted peace on all sides but distrust is a very paralysing kind of thing."
She gave particular mention to "our friends in the unionist community who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much to move the process forward. "Please God they will respond in kind."
Mrs McAleese is visiting Uganda as part of an 11-day trip to Africa to highlight the work of Irish missionaries and aid workers.