Betty Williams

Betty Williams (1943–2020) was a Northern Irish peace activist who co-founded the Community of Peace People and shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize with Mairead Corrigan.

Mairead Corrigan: Mairead Corrigan is a Northern Irish peace activist who co-founded the Community of Peace People and shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. Williams and Corrigan jointly founded the movement and received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Troubles: The Troubles were a conflict in Northern Ireland, lasting mainly from the late 1960s to 1998, involving national identity, governance, and political violence. Williams’s peace campaign arose amid the conflict’s daily violence.
1976 Nobel Peace Prize: The 1976 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan for their efforts to end sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. The award recognized the campaign Williams helped launch.
Armed struggle: Armed struggle is the use of organized violence to pursue political or military objectives. The Peace People rejected the paramilitary violence dominating the conflict.
Ciarán McKeown: Ciarán McKeown was an Irish journalist and peace activist who helped establish the Community of Peace People. He helped turn Williams and Corrigan’s protest into a sustained organization.
IRA: The Irish Republican Army was a name used by several Irish republican paramilitary organizations seeking an end to British rule in Ireland. An IRA gunman’s actions led to the incident that prompted Williams’s first peace protest.
Peace People marches: The Peace People marches were public demonstrations in Northern Ireland that called for an end to violence during the Troubles. Williams helped mobilize large marches after the 1976 Belfast deaths.
Good Friday Agreement: The Good Friday Agreement is the 1998 settlement establishing a power-sharing framework and institutions in Northern Ireland. It represents a later negotiated political settlement, unlike the Peace People’s grassroots protest approach.
Community of Peace People: The Community of Peace People is a Northern Irish peace movement founded in 1976 amid the Troubles. Williams’s activism became the movement’s public campaign for nonviolence.
Anne Maguire: Anne Maguire was a Northern Irish woman whose three children were killed when an IRA gunman’s car crashed in Belfast in 1976. The deaths of her children became the immediate focus of Williams’s public appeal.

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Mairead MaguireRelated: Williams joined Maguire in founding the movement that grew from the deaths of Maguire’s relatives.