EVEN the cynics welcomed the appointment of Baroness Jean Denton at the Northern Ireland Office. She would be a breath of fresh air in the stale Stormont corridors, her admirers said. Their enthusiasm was unsurprising. She oozed colour.
A former racing driver, she was British women's champion in 1967 and 1968. She had an experienced business background. She had been external affairs director with Austin Rover and a director of British Nuclear Fuels.
She was spunky and forthright, a real doer. She never gave up. She successfully fought breast cancer. She had a great sense of humour. Unlike her stiff, stern colleagues at the NIO, she wasn't afraid to display her humanity. She spoke of her sadness at the death of Ayrton Senna.
Despite her success in politics, she didn't want to join the men in the suits. She spoke of the difficulty of buying brightly coloured evening wear in Northern Ireland. "It's bad enough all the men looking like penguins in their tuxedos without a woman becoming just another black figure," she said.
She prided herself on being "a woman's woman" and pledged not to allow women's issues to be swept under the carpet. "It is my job to make sure that women have a voice and encourage them not to waste talents or resources, she said. "I have always found that women work well with other women. I would bend over backwards to help another woman."
But a woman who worked in the baroness's private office at the Department of Agriculture in the summer of 1995 could be forgiven for treating these sentiments with scorn. The woman, a Catholic with a 15 year unblemished record in the civil service, was moved after only three months in her position, having suffered sectarian harassment from the baroness's private secretary - a Protestant woman - during the time of the 1995 Drumcree standoff.
The woman, deeply distressed, visited the director of personnel and told him that a transfer so soon would "send a message to all in the department that she had not been up to the job" and be a black mark against her in the future.
She informed him of the incident of sectarian harassment. Contrary to the NIO's own rules, the woman was still transferred. She was not offered the option of remaining pending an investigation. Fair employment guidelines state that the harasser be moved and the victim be allowed to stay.
The woman, who was transferred to the Tourist Board, took her case to the Fair Employment Commission. But before it was heard, the Department of Agriculture admitted sectarian harassment, apologised, and agreed to pay her £10,000.
After the settlement was made public last month, there was severe criticism of the woman's transfer. The Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture denied that Baroness Denton had been personally involved in the decision.
The SDLP and Sinn Fein called for her resignation after the Irish News published a confidential document which it said indicated that the Catholic woman had been moved on the baroness's personal orders because she was not "fitting in".
However, the baroness stood firm and interest in the issue seemed to be waning. Then, last weekend, it was disclosed that she had again broken the British government's own employment guidelines in the appointment of her travelling private secretary. The minister usually selects the successful candidate from a shortlist drawn up by civil servants. The baroness chose a woman not on the list who had been her departmental private secretary in the Belfast office of the Department of Economic Development.
While she did not act illegally and it is not being suggested that discrimination occurred the handling of the case was contrary to fair employment guidelines.
The affair has divided Northern politicians along traditional lines. While nationalists have called for her resignation, the baroness has become a loyalist heroine. Mr Sammy Wilson of the DUP spoke of her devotion to the North and promised that if she stood her ground she would have the "support of the majority of people".
The UUP chairman, Mr Jim Nicholson, accused her critics of nit picking and alleged that fair employment laws were destroying good working relationships.
Others believe Baroness Denton must resign because employers cannot be expected to fulfil their legal obligations when the British government does not do so.
The baroness is resisting pressure to stand down.
When she arrived in the North she stressed her industrial background. "You are used to being absolutely measured and you are used to the buck stopping on your desk, so you have never signed a piece of paper in your life without reading it.
"And you are accountable every month for your performance. At the end of the day, I have to be responsible for what happens."