THEIR faces, so familiar, suddenly look very different. David Trimble and Gerry Adams have stared out at us from the papers and television news for years.

If they wore any expression at all, it was one of grim determination, the relentlessness of the Northern Irish struggle etched onto their features.

Now, though, they look changed, more human. Because they are smiling.

Their smiles signify so much: delight, relief, hope. And they are infectious. All of Northern Ireland will be smiling today. In a province so used to tears, that says more about the significance of the IRA's decision to de-arm than all the politicians' speeches.

It seems a long time since we last celebrated such a breakthrough. Hopes raised sky high by the Good Friday Agreement have been dashed so often that pessimism had settled over the province again. It became a question of when, not if, the peace process would collapse.

The Northern Ireland Assembly, so crucial to the sustainability of peace, was suspended. Loyalist terror groups broke the ceasefire.

But the September 11 atrocities had forced the pace. These heinous attacks put the Irish troubles into a new world context. And they changed the attitude of the United States towards the IRA.

Suddenly, Americans understood what terrorism is. Not a "war" conducted by glamorous "freedom fighters", but the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and children. Sinn Fein had to work fast to keep the goodwill it had built in the US.

There is a long, long way to go. Shortly before the announcement on IRA decommissioning, an eight year old Belfast girl was injured by shrapnel in a pipe bomb explosion. Hate and bitterness are deeply ingrained in both communities.

But now the assembly has a chance. If Northern Ireland's democratically-elected leaders can work together to forge a better future, they will begin to bring the country together. The ballot box is triumphing over the Armalite.

That is a good enough reason to smile today.

Updated: 10:39 Wednesday, October 24, 2001