In some respects, Roisin McAliskey might consider herself a very fortunate woman. Her case has become something of a cause celebre, thanks largely to the indefatigable efforts of her mother - the former Mid Ulster MP, Mrs Bernadette McAliskey - who has organised a skilfull campaign involving some well placed figures in politics, in the media and among the legal profession.
Ms McAliskey, of course is but one of several hundred women jailed in Britain. She is not the first and she will not be the last, prisoner to suffer within the harsh British prison regime. She is also, assuredly, not the first pregnant woman to pass through that penal system. It might also be said that the extradition warrants on which Ms Aliskey has been detained are not, in themselves, trivial the German authorities allege that she was part of a five member IRA gang responsible for the mortar bomb attack on a British army barracks near Osnabruck, last summer.
For all that, Ms McAliskey's high profile and the fact that she was pregnant, should have alerted the British government to the importance of her case. It was inevitable that her treatment would be closely monitored and that it would be seen as symptomatic of how the British authorities respond to Irish concerns and sensitivities.
The response to these concerns has been insensitive. Ms McAliskey has been strip searched on almost 60 occasions. She has been denied normal prenatal facilities, physical contact with her family and any access to other prisoners. Now seven months pregnant, she was - until this week - unsure as to whether she would be separated from her baby when it is born.
Last week's decision by the British prison authorities to reduce Ms McAliskey's security status from High Risk Category A to Standard Risk Category A is a welcome, if belated, acknowledgment that her treatment was extreme. It is hardly a coincidence that the decision came shortly after the chairman of the Conservative backbench committee on Northern Ireland, Mr. Andrew Hunter someone not known for his pro nationalist views wrote to Mr Howard and the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, calling for some "flexibility" in the remand regime.
Other progress has been made. The British authorities have now given an assurance that she will be allowed to keep her baby in prison while she awaits possible extradition. She will also now be allowed to use the mother and baby unit at Holloway prison and she will receive proper ante and post natal treatment.
Thus it seemed that some healing of the rift in AngloIrish relations created by Ms McAliskey's treatment, might have been achieved. That was until the grossly insensitive remarks of the Home Office minister, Mr David Maclean, who implicitedly accused the unconvicted Ms McAliskey of being "evil IRA scum". Mr Maclean, who recently said that most London beggars were "aggressive Scots" clearly has a penchant for making offensive remarks much more important is the unseemly rush by British Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard and Downing Street, to defend the indefensible. Thus it may be that the McAliskey case could still have the potential to unsettle Anglo Irish relations and to deepen the sense of alienation among the nationalist community in Northern Ireland.