A playground for Mo

Stormont Castle playgroundI’m sure that it’s been there for ages but I just noticed that the playground in the ground of the Stormont Estate had been dedicated to the memory of Mo Mowlam.Mo was one of the many politicians who have fallen by the wayside along the path to peace in Northern Ireland. As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1997 to 1999 it was she who presided over the Good Friday Agreement which is essentially the basis that has established peace although, as can only be expected, it did take quite a while after the signing of that agreement way back in 1998 before various pieces of the puzzle fell into place and a few years after that before people in NI and elsewhere finally got around to accepting that peace had apparently arrived.

Whilst most politicians end up with something or other named after them, it does seem particularly appropriate that Mo gets a playground. Even in the hectic schedule that she had during her time in NI, she still managed to get the time to get a special royal garden party for children organised in 1999. Yes, there were heaps of people behind the scenes doing the legwork for that but she made it very clear on the day that she regarded the children as important and personally led a posse of them around Hillsborough Castle. Somehow I just can’t picture Patrick Mayhew doing something similar.

As well as the childrens’ garden party, she was the one that opened up the grounds of the Stormont Estate more generally to the public and there seem to be a good deal more people using them these days than there were before her time and, of course, the playground is one aspect of that opening up.

Anyway, thanks Mo. It’s a great playground.

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One Response to “A playground for Mo”

  • wendy says:

    Nice post, Mo seemed a very nice ‘people’ person. Its a shame she did not live to see the new NI parliament.

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