Mairead
Corrigan is the cofounder, along with Betty Williams, of the Community of Peace
People, an organization that sought to encourage a peaceful resolution to the
conflict in Northern Ireland. For their dedication to this effort, they both received
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. Mairead Corrigan, a Catholic, became involved in
the peace movement after 3 of her sister's children were killed as innocent bystanders
in an incident between British troops and an IRA member. She and Betty Williams,
a woman who witnessed the event, co-founded Women for Peace (which later became
Community for Peace People) to organize petitions and protests for peace. After
only a month the two women had organized 35,000 Catholic and Protestant protesters
calling for an end to the violence. Mairead Corrigan Maguire has since continued
to advocate for a more peaceful world in numerous causes, including continuing
as the Honorary President of The Peace People which now works to advocate for
peace and nonviolence throughout the world. Believing that education is crucial
to transforming our culture of violence into a culture of peace, Mairead Corrigan
Maguire has created a peace education curriculum with the nonprofit group, Peace
Jam, and is member of the Honorary board of the International Coalition for the
Decade of the culture of Peace and Nonviolence. In 1990 Mairead Corrigan was awarded
the Pacem in Terris Award, which calls on all people of good will to work for
peace between all nations ('Pacem in Terris' is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.')
