Nobel Prize laureate speaks on violence in Northern Ireland
Williams received the Nobel Prize for her work with ending violence.
Published Nov. 17, 2009
Students gathered Friday in Ellis Auditorium to hear Nobel Peace Prize laureate Betty Williams speak about her efforts to end the violence in Northern Ireland and enrich the lives of children.
Williams' crusade against violence began in 1976 when she witnessed the deaths of three children in Belfast, where she lived during the Troubles, a period of violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. The children had been riding in a car driven by a member of the Irish Republican Army who was fatally shot by the British Army, sending the car careening out of control and killing the children inside.
"Nobody should ever have to watch any child die," Williams said. "Three children in one fell swoop."
After witnessing the deaths, Williams said she felt anger she considers the catalyst for her campaign to end the violence in Belfast.
She spent that night banging on her neighbors' doors, in the end collecting 6,000 signatures for a petition that called for an end to the violence in Northern Ireland.
The peace rally that came as a result of the petition a few days later was a crucial point in her activism, Williams said. She described arriving at the rally site and noticing a few groups of women hanging around. Then the buses started coming.
"The Catholics came from this end of the road and the Protestants came from the other end of the road," she said.
The buses stopped, the doors opened and women from the divided city silently poured out, running to embrace each other in the street.
"They never spoke," Williams said. "They just hugged. That powerful act of love wiped out 850 years of bad history."
After the rally, Williams founded the Community of Peace People in Ireland, which worked for an end to the violence. Her work continues today as a chairwoman of several foundations and the leader of a project to build a city for children in Italy. The city, Williams said, would provide a home for refugee children.
MU Peace Studies Director John Galliher helped to bring Williams to campus through collaboration with William Woods University and PeaceJam, an organization founded by 12 Nobel Peace Prize laureates to help promote peace work among young people.
"I found myself really moved by her comments from time to time," he said.
Amy Folkedahl, a member of PeaceJam and a student at William Woods University, said she enjoyed Williams' speech and being able to meet her in person.
"She's willing to laugh at her stories," Folkedahl said.
Williams also spoke on her Nobel Peace Prize, which she received in 1977 for her work with the Community of Peace People and her other efforts to reduce the amount of violence there.
"None of this for me was planned," Williams said. "No one in their right mind wants to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner because you're expected to be perfect."