Dances With Wolves: Mo Mowlam
(Note: I started writing this posting on 18th of July, but never finished it until today, the 14th August. Now as I try to finish it, Ms. Mowlam is so critically and apparently terminally ill that she is already taken to be near her family).
They used to say that in the cabinet of Margaret Thatcher, there was only one man: Mrs. Thatcher herself. (The fact of the matter remains that perhaps she was the only woman member in the whole cabinet).
Later on, during the first Tony Blair government, Mo Mowlam (Dr. Marjorie Mowlam) should earn a similar distinction, because she was different from any of her predecessors as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Once she was appointed to this post in 1997, some of her immediate priorities were to work towards the restoration of the IRA ceasefire, and to include Sinn Fein in the multi-party talks. She made both of them possible within months. To achieve this, she walked to the Maze prison to meet some of the toughest IRA guys. "In 1998, as Northern Ireland secretary, she went inside the Maze Prison when it became clear that the peace process would only succeed with the backing of the prisoners. The loyalist UDA/UFF prisoners had previously withdrawn their support for the process." Most people were sceptical of her move, and some even were worried about her pesonal safety. But when finally she returned adfter speaking to the tough guys face-to=face for an hour, she emerged a victor and all those guys, earlier opposed to the cease-fire, gave their node to the peace process. Her response to reporters was: “I didn’t negotiate, I didn’t do a deal. If you want progress, you ain’t going to get it if you don’t have talks.” What followed was the Good Friday Agreement.
Once she was appointed to this post in 1997, some of her immediate priorities were to work towards the restoration of the IRA ceasefire, and to include Sinn Fein in the multi-party talks. She made both of them possible within months. To achieve this, she walked to the Maze prison to meet some of the toughest IRA guys. "In 1998, as Northern Ireland secretary, she went inside the Maze Prison when it became clear that the peace process would only succeed with the backing of the prisoners. The loyalist UDA/UFF prisoners had previously withdrawn their support for the process." Most people were sceptical of her move, and some even were worried about her pesonal safety. But when finally she returned adfter speaking to the tough guys face-to=face for an hour, she emerged a victor and all those guys, earlier opposed to the cease-fire, gave their node to the peace process. Her response to reporters was: “I didn’t negotiate, I didn’t do a deal. If you want progress, you ain’t going to get it if you don’t have talks.” What followed was the Good Friday Agreement.
(Personally, I first knew about her through an article in the Indian news-magazine Frontline because of this particular incident, and I've respected her as a person as well as her courage and determination ever since).
She has always been uncommon. As the Daily Express puts in, "Even her own mother described Mo as "vulgar", and the evidence in Julia Langdon's quite admiring biography does not rebuff the charge.". It further adds that "....no matter what act of clownishness Mo indulges in - presides over a dog's wedding on TV with Graham Norton, say - her popularity only increases. Moralists might describe Mo as a husband-stealer: Ms Langdon describes Mo's repeated affairs with married men, and the sometimes insouciant way in which children seem to be left out of the equation in these break-ups. But this will not affect Mo's ratings one little bit."
A few weeks before the general election in 1997, a British tabloids showed pictures of a puffy Mowlam and accused her of addiction to sweets. She responded that she was taking steroids for a brain tumor, which apparently nobody was aware of. After this episode, she was hailed as "Brave Mo." She also caused an uproar, while woring as the head of the Government's anti-drugs campaign, by confessing that, as a student, she had tried cannabis.
I don't much believe in prayer, but I believe in hope. It's a sad news that she is critically ill. I sincerely hope that she would get well soon.
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Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Mowlam
http://195.157.68.115/articles/momolem.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/821698.stm
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1998/08/08/ihead.htm
http://www.ucc.ie/en/PresidentsOffice/PresidentsDistinguishedGuestLectureSeries/Title,295,en.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4739329.stm
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9804/10/n.ireland.profiles/mowlam/mowlam.html
http://saoirse32.blogsome.com/2005/08/03/mo-mowlam-critical-but-stable/
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