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Betty Williams
(1943)
Northern Irish peace activist who, with Mairead Corrigan, founded the
Community for Peace People in 1976 and with her shared the 1976 Nobel
Prize for Peace.
Williams, an office worker and wife and mother, took little part in
public life until August 1976, when she witnessed an incident that moved
her to speak out. An Irish Republican Army terrorist was shot by British
troops while fleeing in a car; the car went out of control and struck
several people, killing three children. Williams immediately began circulating
petitions in Protestant neighbourhoods calling for an end to sectarian
violence. This activity soon brought her into association with Mairead
Corrigan, an aunt of the slain children, who had been similarly galvanized
into action. Together they founded the Community for Peace People to
provide services for victims of the Northern Ireland conflict.
In 1978 Williams and Corrigan resigned their positions of leadership
in the Community and by 1980 had become estranged. In 1982 Williams
married and moved to Florida, in the United States.
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