YP Letters: Don't forget Mowlam's part in peace process

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.
The late Mo Mowlam was integral to the Northern Ireland peace process. Picture: John Giles.The late Mo Mowlam was integral to the Northern Ireland peace process. Picture: John Giles.
The late Mo Mowlam was integral to the Northern Ireland peace process. Picture: John Giles.

FOLLOWING the death of 
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness and the contribution made 
by a number of people in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, one person’s contribution is noticeably missing – that of Mo Mowlam, the late Northern Ireland Secretary.

She was part of the team that brought about the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. She was instrumental in making this possible by convincing Republicans and Nationalists that this was a different sort of British Government. When Loyalist parmilitaries began to express their doubts about the peace process, Mo bravely visited them in the Maze prison. She managed to prevent them from pulling the plug on the process.

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Mo Mowlam also pushed for the inquiry into ‘Bloody Sunday’ in which the British Army killed 13 people in Derry in 1972. At the 1998 Labour conference when Prime Minister Tony Blair made his speech and mentioned Mo’s name she received a standing ovation. Mo revealed in her autobiography she believed that incident led to her dismissal; She was replaced by Blair’s mate Peter Mandelson as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Mo Mowlam’s contribution to the peace movement in Northern Ireland should not be overlooked.