Mairead Corrigan
Mairead Corrigan (born 27 January, 1944) was the co-founder, with Betty Williams, of the Community of Peace People, an organization which attempts to encourage a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. She is also known as Mairead Corrigan-Maguire.
Biography
Corrigan was born into a Roman Catholic family in Belfast, the second child of seven. She attended Catholic schools until the age of 14, then found a job as a secretary.
Corrigan became active with the peace movement after three children of her sister, Anne Maguire, were run over and killed by a car driven by Danny Lennon, an IRA man who was fatally shot by British troops while trying to make a getaway. Anne Maguire later committed suicide.
Betty Williams, a baptised Roman Catholic herself, despite a Protestant father and a Protestant husband, had witnessed the event, and soon after the two co-founded Women for Peace, which later became the Community for Peace People.
By the end of the month Betty and Mairead brought 35,000 people onto the streets of Belfast petitioning for peace between the republican and loyalist factions. She believed the most effective way to end the violence was not violence but re-education (see [[1]]).
However, the venture ultimately petered out due to in large part to objections from Catholics that the Peace People were focusing entirely on republican violence and ignoring loyalist and state violence by the British security forces.
She received the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Betty Williams, in 1977 (the prize for 1976) for their efforts. They were criticised for deciding to keep the prize money for themselves.
In 1981 she married Jackie Maguire, who was the widower of her late sister, Anne. She has three stepchildren and two of her own, John and Luke.
In 1990 Corrigan was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.'
She is member of the Honorary board of the International Coalition for the Decade of the culture of Peace and Nonviolence.
In 2004 she went to Israel and welcomed Mordechai Vanunu upon his release from prison, where he had served an 18-year prison sentence for disclosing Israel's nuclear secrets.
She is a member of the pro-life group Consistent Life, which is against abortion, the death penalty and euthanasia.
In April 2007, while participating in a protest against the construction of the West Bank barrier outside the Palestinian village of Bil'in, Israeli security forces intervened and Ms. Corrigan was hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet and inhaled tear gas, requiring medical attention.
External links
- [2] Peace 1976
- [3] Peace People
- [4] Mairead Corrigan & Betty Williams
- [5] Mairead Corrigan Maguire
- [6] Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan
- [7] 2007 hit by a rubber bullet and inhaled tear gas (Israeli report)
- [8] 2007 hit by a rubber bullet and inhaled tear gas (Irish report)
- [9] 2007 hit by a rubber bullet and inhaled tear gas (her own first-hand account)
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- [10] Mairead Corrigan - Nobel Curriculum Vitae
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