On Monday, while campaigning in a by-election in Cheshire, Mo Mowlam took the unusual step of asking Tony Blair not to move her from her present job. She told journalists: "I haven't had my fill of Northern Ireland. It's an issue that is difficult and problematic. I'd like to see it through."
It was a high-risk gamble. Dr Mowlam was, in effect, appealing to public opinion over the head of the prime minister - but then, as George Mitchell commented shrewdly in his book Making Peace, the Northern Ireland Secretary has always demonstrated "a decidedly non-political approach" to politics.
The word has been out for some time now that Mr Blair would like to move her in his forthcoming cabinet reshuffle, possibly to replace her with Peter Mandelson. Various arguments have been advanced for and against the change. Dr Mowlam is said to have lost the confidence of the Ulster Unionists, to the extent that David Trimble recently demanded that she should be sacked.
More important, perhaps, has been the way in which she was largely sidelined by Mr Blair himself from the most recent round of negotiations.
There have been reports of disagreement between them on the handling of the talks which led to last week's debacle at Stormont.
One Northern Ireland source told me: "He was asked again and again not to force the Unionists into a corner at this point but he is prime minister . . ."
The failure of Mr Blair's ultimatum may have concentrated minds on the need to rescue the Belfast Agreement, but it probably has not improved his temper as far as Northern Ireland's politicians are concerned.
There are more benign reasons for a possible move for Dr Mowlam. She has been New Labour's spokeswoman on Northern Ireland since 1994 and Secretary of State for more than two years. Her health is still not good. Her popularity in Britain means that she could be of great use to her party in another domestic post.
Then there is the question of Peter Mandelson. Mr Blair wants to bring him back into the cabinet and has great confidence in his political skills and judgment. He is a new face and might, perhaps, be more acceptable to the Ulster Unionists.
On a personal note, I like and admire Mr Mandelson, with whom I was lucky enough to work on a number of television programmes about Northern Ireland when we were both quite a bit younger. I have no doubt he would bring very valuable qualities to Belfast and it may be that at some time in the future - if, for example, there is a serious crisis in the peace process - these will be needed.
But this is not the moment for such a move. It is not a question of comparing and contrasting the political virtues of Dr Mowlam and Mr Mandelson. It does seem to be the case that her informal, touchy-feely style and alleged use of barrack-room language has not endeared her to a considerable section of political unionism.
Against that, she has secured the confidence of critical sections of that community, notably the political parties associated with loyalist paramilitary groups. Her visit to the Maze to talk to prisoners was widely criticised (by myself among others) but it succeeded in securing the loyalist ceasefire and support for the political talks. Typically, it was a risky gamble which paid off.
It ties in with another of Dr Mowlam's political strengths, one which has been enormously important in building confidence in the peace process in the wider community in Northern Ireland. No one who was there will ever forget her arrival on the streets of Belfast within hours of her appointment to the Northern Ireland job in May 1997.
Hugging old-age pensioners, joking with young people, she blew away years of patronising, distant formality in the relationship between government and people.
This particular skill has been used to great effect in more substantial ways. Sometimes, watching her, one has had the impression that Dr Mowlam is much more at ease with community groups, tenants' associations, women trades unionists than with more formal political occasions. She has used these encounters to empower so-called ordinary people, to convince them that this is their peace process and that they can help it to succeed.
In recent days, when the politicians have seemed so bitterly divided and uncertain, this has been a cause for hope, that people on the ground still believe the Belfast Agreement can and will work.
Last week, on the day gloom reigned at Stormont, I visited Omagh. I wanted to see whether people in this town, which has suffered so terribly from the violence, felt a loss of confidence in the whole process. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Over and over again - and I hadn't really expected this - people said, "but we voted for this. The politicians have to make it work".
More than any British politician I can remember, Mo Mowlam has tried to understand the dynamics - communal and emotional as well as political - of relationships in Northern Ireland. In 1994, soon after she was appointed New Labour's front bench spokeswoman, she said: "I find Northern Ireland issues hauntingly compulsive."
That empathy with the province and its people has characterised her handling of the job.
Some months ago, when Tony Blair was involved in a previous bout of intensive negotiations on the future of the agreement, one Irish official said to me: "You can't fault his commitment to this project, but every so often you suddenly realise that he's got no gut feeling for the people and the problems involved. Mo understands that it isn't just a question of coming to rational, sensible decisions. There's a lot of additional baggage that has to be dealt with."
What people in Northern Ireland most need now is a sense of continuity, that what has happened in recent weeks is a setback but not a crisis for the peace process.
It is one of the reasons why the resignation of Seamus Mallon, while understandable, is also a matter for deep regret. It adds to the impression that things are falling apart.
Tony Blair knows, perhaps better than anyone else, how important popular support has been to this whole project, helping the politicians to overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles. Mo Mowlam has been crucial in building that confidence and support. Let us hope that she is given time to see it through.