The peace process has been a long hard road for all the negotiating parties. Patience, perseverance and pressure have eventually paid off.
Different incidents, breakdowns, and the internal logic of the process, have allowed no comfortable resting place, and have propelled the republican movement to a more comprehensive termination of paramilitarism than they ever contemplated, or than unionists or governments could at an earlier stage reasonably have expected.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the British prime minister, Tony Blair, their teams and their predecessors have a tangible reward for all their efforts. As late as last March, there were political calls in the Dáil for the Taoiseach not to re-engage with Sinn Féin.
For most purposes, "the war" ended some years ago. The formal IRA declaration that the armed campaign is at an end is nonetheless an important international headline, welcome to the prime minister, and long demanded by unionists.
There may be more formalities to be completed, but it is reasonable to interpret the statement as drawing a definitive line under armed struggle and the 200-year-old physical-force tradition in Irish politics.
All reactions, positive and otherwise, are predicated on exact fulfilment of the promise contained in the statement. The political price of failing to do so would be high. Its significance is that it removes any cover for the type of activities hitherto engaged in by the IRA, so that any individual volunteer who defies orders and instructions will be disowned.
The length of time taken to reach this point will seem to many excessive. A significant price in terms of lost momentum and slow implementation of parts of the agreement has already been paid.
The overriding objective, however, has been to hold the republican movement and community together. The split that created the Real IRA and led to the Omagh bomb illustrates the dangers that accompanied the move away from armed struggle. It is easy for those not involved to be dismissive.
The news media are right to remind people of the terrible human cost of a ruthlessly conducted and misconceived conflict, in which the IRA were the prime, though by no means the sole, movers.
There is an amount of false propaganda on the local airwaves. A north Tipperary Sinn Féin councillor on Tipp Midwest radio yesterday, for example, claimed that the IRA were "unsung heroes" (what about the ballads?) and sole defenders of the Catholic community.
They were actually engaged in an aggressive campaign to bring about a united Ireland without legitimate authority and against the express wishes of the people of Ireland, including a clear majority of the nationalist community which supported the SDLP.
Despite sharp divergence about the past, the skill of the republican leadership in extricating the IRA from a pointless and counterproductive campaign has to be acknowledged.
Many would see community self-defence, which some in government were asked to assist, and tried to in 1969-70, as one element retaining plausible legitimacy. In response, the leadership was wise to point out how far the situation had changed in 35 years and in referring, quite correctly, to the responsibility of society at large.
Nationalist Ireland and, to be fair, the British government and more moderate unionist politicians have all helped create the conditions that enabled republicans to embrace an exclusively political alternative.
An urgent task now is to bring loyalist paramilitary organisations to a similar stage, even though the same political rewards and incentives do not exist. Nonetheless, their communities will be clear beneficiaries.
Courage and firmness are also needed to put a stop to the annual demeaning and damaging confrontations around the marching season, by keeping marches to where they are welcome or where prior consent has been obtained.
Both Protestants and republicans need to confront naked sectarianism which makes a mockery of their respective religious and political creeds.
Restoring the institutions will take time. The cautious but relatively moderate unionist reaction to the IRA statement is to be welcomed.
The speed of developments does depend on actions that will restore confidence. Tony Blair has made it clear to unionists that in those circumstances the resumption of devolved government is his expectation and objective.
Policing is the last thorn to be grasped, and it is vital to stability. It has been linked to devolution. Respect for the rule of law will be hard to foster while there is rejection of policing.
Leadership dialogue with the PSNI is welcome.
The Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, is right to query the presence of MI5 in Northern Ireland policing, which is by definition unaccountable, excepting any genuine threat to British national security posed by bomb attacks on cities, which for sane republicans are no longer a usable weapon.
Active dissident republican paramilitaries, if they have an ounce of patriotism, will cede to the settled and overwhelming wishes of the Irish people, North and South, and formally end their campaigns now. No more than the IRA itself do they have any right or mandate to wage war on neighbours to force a united Ireland.
As far as building the republic is concerned, it would be good to recognise that the parties of de Valera, Collins and Connolly, joined for a time by MacBride's (and now that one looks back to Eoin MacNeill) have been doing this for the best part of 80 years with considerable success.
If truth be known, it is the constitutional parties North and South that have led the way, and they are to be joined at last by forces that have hitherto not been wedded to Irish democracy, but that are now rapidly discovering its attractions.
A strengthened northern voice in the Senate and from time to time before an Oireachtas committee would be one tangible expression of the all-Ireland democratic dimension.
So would all-round northern participation in the British-Irish parliamentary body and the establishment of a joint North-South parliamentary forum envisaged in the Belfast Agreement.