Twenty years after her death, Mo Mowlam, the politician who did more than anybody else to secure peace in Northern Ireland, has been honoured with a commemorative plaque at her old school in Coventry.
Journalist Julia Langdon, who wrote a biography of Mo Mowlam in 2000, unveiled the blue plaque at Coundon Court School, where she was a pupil from 1962 to 1968.
Mo Mowlam was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in Tony Blair’s government and was credited with breaking the impasses between Republicans and Unionists, notably by going into the Maze Prison and talking to paramilitaries from both sides.
Julia Langdon, the first woman to hold the post of Political Editor on a national newspaper, recalled the warmth that Mo Mowlam showed to everybody, whether important or not. And she said Mowlam credited Coundon Court for her drive and determination to succeed.
” She was asked once to name her two most difficult achievements. Getting the Good Friday Agreement signed, she replied, and cycling up the hill to school at Coundon Court.”
The blue plaque was commissioned by the Coventry Society. and installed in partnership with the school, led by head teacher Chris Heal. In his remarks at the unveiling, he paid tribute to Mo Mowlam as a great role model for pupils and somebody that the school was very proud of.
Also among the speakers was Sue Cooper who was in the same class as Mo Mowlam at Coundon Court, which was then a single-sex girls’ comprehensive school. She remembered Mo as a sporty girl who always radiated confidence and to nobody’s great surprise went on to become head girl.
Peter Walters, from the Coventry Society, said, “Mo Mowlam’s example showed just what can be achieved with determination, force of personality and emotional intelligence. And it feels appropriate to have installed the plaque at the school, where current and future pupils can see it – and perhaps take some inspiration from it.”
That was a theme echoed by three current sixth-formers at Coundon Court, who also spoke at the unveiling.