Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams
Two of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates who will participate in PeaceJam at DU Sept. 15–17 lent their voices to peace during Northern Ireland’s deadly civil war in the 1970s.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for co-founding the “Community of Peace People,” an organization that sought peaceful resolution of the violence in Northern Ireland between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British Army.
Maguire became a peace activist after a car driven by an IRA member killed her sister’s three children.
Williams witnessed the event. She and Maguire founded “Women for Peace,” which later became the “Community for Peace People.” Within a month, Maguire and Williams had galvanized tens of thousands of women. The protestors marched the streets of Belfast petitioning for peace between the republican and loyalist factions.
Today, they continue to encourage dialogue between the deeply divided communities in Northern Ireland. Maguire and Williams travel the world to promote peace and justice and are participants in PeaceJam.
— Brenda Goates