She insisted that the peace process must continue, despite the IRA's refusal to decommission. This raised Unionist suspicions and infuriated their leader, David Trimble, not least because it involved him in huge problems with his own party members. But there was another side of the coin and her increasingly cryogenic relations with the Unionists were a minus Unionists suspected she was an Irish nationalist at heart. In the wake of the Omagh bomb in 1998, Mowlam unwisely poured praise on Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, for his condemnation of the republican group that planted the bomb - even though the extent of IRA involvement was far from clear. As the months went by, I could see how initial reluctance turned into fascination and huge enthusiasm to do something in the north of Ireland.
When she became Northern Ireland Secretary in 1997, Mowlam's warmth was an enormous plus, as far as relations with the republican side were concerned. In 1994, Tony Blair appointed her to the shadow Northern Ireland job, to her initial dismay. I would see her from time to time at airports, haversack slung across her back, on her way to and from Belfast. They made her a Trade and Industry opposition spokeswoman specialising in affairs of the City of London from 1989 until 1992 and then, she became John Smith's principal opposition spokesperson on the Citizen's Charter and women's affairs, 1992-93, then on national heritage, 1993-94. There is no more rigorous and better education for a young and new Member of Parliament.
Mowlam was extremely tactful in her relations with Neil Kinnock and subsequently John Smith and, indeed, with Tony Blair until 1998. She made people feel that they had, however briefly, her complete attention. The whips did Mowlam a very good turn by putting her within weeks of the election on to the most effective and educative of all Select Committees - the Public Accounts Committee. Mowlam did indeed fight effectively for the jobless on Teesside, in particular in the aftermath of the problems surrounding the closure of Smith's Dock and the complexities of British shipbuilders.