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Mowlam had a special bond with publicFrom CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley LONDON, England (CNN) -- Mo Mowlam, the UK Northern Ireland Secretary who helped Tony Blair negotiate the Good Friday Agreement and who played a significant role in the Northern Ireland peace process, has died at the age of 55. She had suffered health problems since suffering a brain tumor when in office in the late 1990s. Mowlam was the licensed human being among her fellow politicians -- she was friendly, open and unstuffy, a minister who listened as well as talked. So popular was she that when Tony Blair referred to "Our Mo" in the middle of his speech to Labour's conference in 1998, it provoked a standing ovation -- for her, not for him. She believed he never forgot that. Mowlam will be remembered for playing midwife alongside Tony Blair to the Good Friday Agreement. At one point when negotiations were stuck, she bravely went into the Maze prison and talked face-to-face to the hardliners. Two hours later the paramilitaries joined the talks. But Unionists criticized her for being too ready to make concessions to Republicans and she was later eased out in favor of Blair's confidant Peter Mandelson. Contrasting comments on her departure from the two political communities told their own stories. "Mo Mowlam and I were always able to do business," Ulster unionist David Trimble said in 1999. "She has been a breath of fresh air -- an immensely successful Secretary of State," the Social Democratic and Labour party's Seamus Mallon said at around the same time. As a minister, Mowlam battled not only a brain tumor, but also entrenched prejudices. When chemotherapy made her almost bald she typically chose on occasion to discard her wig during negotiations. She was hurt by losing the Northern Ireland job and left Parliament in 2001. She then opposed the Iraq war and courted controversy with calls for the legalization of drugs and for negotiations with Osama bin Laden. But for the public she remained a warm-hearted political figure with a smile which few ever forgot. 
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