Nobel Peace Prize winner from Ireland
to speak at URI's honors colloquium

KINGSTON, R.I. -- September 28, 2000 -- Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a leader in the Northern Ireland Peace Movement, international human rights advocate, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, will present the sixth annual Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Lecture, as part of the University of Rhode Island's fall honors colloquium series, "Nonviolence: Legacies of the Past, Bridges to the Future." Maguire, who will receive an honorary degree from URI, will speak about "Hope for Northern Ireland and the World."

She will speak in Edwards Auditorium on URI's Kingston Campus, Oct. 10 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

When Maguire's nephews and niece were killed in a tragic car accident caused by an act of senseless violence, it inspired her to take a leading role in the Northern Ireland Peace Movement. She had a key role in organizing more than a half a million people in peace marches and demonstrations throughout the United Kingdom. These demonstrations were the largest ever in Ireland's history. That same year, she also co-founded the Community of the Peace People to carry out the initiatives developed during these rallies.

Since then, Maguire has organized nonviolence demonstrations, spoken out against war, reconciled peoples on both sides of the dividing wall, and forwarded a vision of peace for Northern Ireland and the world.

For her efforts, she and fellow crusader Betty Williams received the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. Maguire has received numerous other honors and awards, including the Norwegian People's Prize, the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Distinguished Peace Leadership Award. She has traveled widely in the US, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Latin America, and Iraq.

Maguire has also worked as a private secretary to the managing director of a major Northern Ireland firm. She has volunteered with the Legion of Mary, a social service organization working with young children and prisoners, and co-founded the Committee for the Administration of Justice, a non-secretarian group heavily involved in the debate over changes in the legal system in Northern Ireland.

In September of 1991, Maguire was married to Jackie Maguire, widower of her sister Anne, who never recovered from the loss of her children and died in January 1980. In addition to the remaining three children from the earlier marriage, Mark, Joanne, and Marie Louise, Mairead and Jackie are the parents of John and Luke.

Her book, "A Vision of Peace-Faith and Hope in Northern Ireland," was recently published by Orbis Books.

The annual Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Lecture is administered through the Women's Studies Program. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the URI's Women's Studies Program.

URI's Colloquium series runs Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

For Information: Lynne Derbyshire, 401-874-4732,
Arthur Stein, 401-874-4059, Jan Sawyer, 401-874-2116,
Jennifer Smith, 401-874-2116