In a speech before a crowded Cook Auditorium last night, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire said the way to end the cycles of violence in Northern Ireland is by forging relationships between members of rival factions, not by relying on abstract political theories.
Maguire, a grass-roots activist who acheived recognition as a co-founder of the nonviolent group The Peace People, said progress can come from even the most basic human interaction between supposed enemies. One of her greatest successes, Maguire told the crowd, was convincing rival communities simply to sit down and talk over a cup of tea.
"I would like to see the Northern Irish become great friends," she said. "As time goes on, a unity of heads and minds" must be forged in Northern Ireland.
Maguire summed up the enormous challenge ahead when she stated, "How do we bring together people who for so long have lived apart?" She praised the progress that has been made thus far, citing the recent talks between waring factions, but noted the urgency of the present situation.
"Waging peace for the new millenium is an enormous challenge," she said. "It requires great vision, great personal sacrifice from each one of us ... It is the greatest challenge we have faced in this century."
The polarization of North Irish society springs from the labels people attach to themselves, she said. While many North Irish claim to be either Irish-Catholic or Irish-Protestant, Maguire identifies herself only as "a child of God and member of the human family."
"After all, are we not the human family?" she pleaded. "These labels, what do they mean?"
Few people have been closer to the conflict in Northern Ireland than Maguire. In 1976, when the country was on the brink of civil war, an injured Irish Republican Army member killed her niece and two nephews. Their deaths were a turning point for the nation.
Throughout her speech, Maguire emphasized the need to "empower people where they live."
"Then they can begin to change," she said. Maguire has pushed for a "bottom up" restructuring of Northern Irish democracy.
One source of the strife is insufficient teaching of human values to Irish youth, she said. "We don't teach our children the beautiful art of learning to live with each other ... We need to reach out, to love each other, to serve in a motive of pure love ... and we will find happiness."
Concluding her talk, Maguire noted that Northern Ireland and the world in general needs to "let go of the fear" of other races and religions.
Maguire was on campus as a Class of 1930 Fellow.
