IT IS a truly historic day for Ulster as democracy returns with once deadly enemies sharing power. Yet this departure - as extraordinary as it was once, even recently, unimaginable - must be regarded as only a beginning.

For even as, for the first time in a generation and with republicans a party to it for the first time, devolved government returns to Northern Ireland, there are hard-liners wishing its downfall.

The sobering recognition must be that the gamble on which it has been founded may fall apart.

To begin with, the decision by the Ulster Unionist Council to agree to the setting up of an all-party executive ahead of the decommissioning of weapons by the IRA is not only an abrogation of the obdurate, though reasonable, loyalist stance that said "no guns, no government," but it comes with a deadline that could bring down the whole process and take Unionist leader David Trimble with it.

For the IRA has been given just ten weeks to begin giving up its arms - and already we see Sinn Fein complaining at this condition imposed by the Unionist Council when it voted for the executive's establishment.

But, surely, Sinn Fein and the IRA should also consider what trust they have now been given by the people who have opposed them all these years.

They have been given a share in power without surrendering a single bullet.

And, in Martin McGuinness, who is to be one of Sinn Fein's two ministers in the new devolved government, they and the rest of the world witness the amazing concession of a former IRA commander determined to destroy Northern Ireland, now granted a key role in its rule. After such a display of faith in their belief in the peace process by their opponents - even with the strings of the February deadline attached - what excuses have they now left for hanging on to their weapons and explosives?

A clear and swift gesture is now required of them.

It would be the best Christmas present that the peace process and Ireland could have if that was fast forthcoming.

For on the extremes - among hard-line republican terror groups and die-hard loyalist bigots of the 'No surrender!' stamp - there are those who would be only too glad for republican fears over disarming to wreck the executive and all the efforts to date to find a political settlement to Ulster's problems.

In refusing to bend, Sinn Fein and the IRA could play into their opponents' hands.

And it must be remembered that, even without these ominous threats to the new devolved government, the stride towards a peaceful future for Northern Ireland that is taking place today is but a first step.

If it is to advance and defeat its doubters and foes and leave the extremists without support, the new government and all its parties must quickly and visibly demonstrate that it is working even-handedly for the good of all Ulster's people.

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