Centre that holds out hope for peace.

MO Mowlam met up with two very special friends when she called in at the Warrington Peace Centre.

She told me: ``Warrington has played an important role in the Northern Ireland peace process, because of the work of Colin and Wendy Parry.''

The town is inextricably linked to the Good Friday Agreement, due to the two bomb blasts which ripped through Bridge Street on March 20, 1993, and claimed the lives of Colin and Wendy's 12-year-old son, SUPPORT: Mo with Warrington peace campaigner Colin ParryTim, and three-year-old Johnathan Ball. Colin and Wendy, with the full support of Wilf and Marie, the parents of Johnathan, were determined to build something good and lasting as a memorial to the boys.

And The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Young People's Centre opened on March 20, 2000 - the seventh anniversary of the bombing.

Colin, chairman of The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Trust, told the audience: ``Mo is a good friend and the Peace Centre has very much succeeded thanks to the help, often behind the scenes, of this person, when she was a member of the Cabinet. It's been a great friendship, which we will never forget.''

Mo cut the first sod at the centre. And looking round it today, she says: ``I'm wonderfully amazed and happy at the progress you have made.''

The centre has welcomed countless young people from Northern Ireland and includes accommodation for 54 people, an IT suite, craft room, sports hall and cyber cafe.

And while accepting that it must be a daily battle to raise funds, she said: ``It would be disastrous if the Warrington Peace Centre didn't exist in three years' time.

``It's a fantastic building and I look forward to a great future for it.''