Mairead Corrigan
Introduction to Mairead Corrigan
Mairead Corrigan, born in 1944, Northern Ireland peace activist, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. Corrigan shared the prize with fellow Northern Ireland activist Betty Williams for their efforts to end violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Corrigan was born in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Beginning in her early teens, she volunteered with a group of Catholic laypersons (nonclergy) who worked to assist the underprivileged. The group also worked to convince the Catholic youth of Belfast to avoid confrontation with British troops. The troops were sent to the region in the late 1960s to help control the violence that erupted between Catholics and Protestants when the minority Catholic population began demanding political and economic reform.
In 1976 three children of Corrigan’s sister were killed while walking home from school when the driver of a car fleeing British troops was shot dead and his car swerved out of control. The driver was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a military organization fighting to end British rule of Northern Ireland and establish a unified Irish Republic. With Betty Williams, a Belfast native who witnessed the accident, and Irish journalist Ciaran McKeown, Corrigan founded the Community of People for Peace (later known as Peace People).
The group sought to end sectarian violence-that is, violence between groups based on their affiliations-in Northern Ireland. The day after the children’s funerals the organization sponsored a march of nearly 10,000 people, both Catholic and Protestant, demanding an end to the terrorism used by both sides to pursue their political goals. The marchers faced political extremists who threw rocks, wielded sticks, and tried to block their path. Throughout 1976 the organization sponsored numerous marches, including one in which an estimated 35,000 people crossed the invisible border from the Catholic to the Protestant sector of Belfast.
Corrigan left Peace People in 1978. She continued her work to promote peace by developing volunteer work programs for both Catholic and Protestant young people.” (1)
Resources
Notes and References
- Information about Mairead Corrigan in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia
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