Mairead Maguire, Ireland

Mairead Maguire, Ireland


Mairead is a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She became active with the Northern Ireland peace movement after three children of her sister, Anne Maguire, were run over and killed by a car driven by a member of the Irish Republican Army.  She co-founded, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, the Women for Peace, which later became the Community for Peace People, an organisation dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Mairead and Betty were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize  In June 2010, Mairead went on board the MV Rachel Corrie as part of a flotilla that unsuccessfully attempted to breach the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

QUOTE: Today this collective punishment by Israeli Government policies goes on. Why has it lasted so long? The Palestinians have been most cruelly punished by Israeli policies of occupation, war and destruction.  They say that ‘silence’ is golden, but regarding the plight of Gazans and Palestinians the ‘silence’ of the world, especially concerning their little children, shows a lack of moral and ethical leadership from the international Community. It behooves us to ask, “Why is President Obama not saying: ’70 years of Israeli occupation is enough – it is time for Peace for the Palestinians?’”

Mairead Maguire, peace activist, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize,
greets her Palestinian friends in Gaza.
[Recorded in Seravezza – Lucca, Italy, 4 August 2012]