Betty Williams was born May 22 1943 in Northern Ireland and not only is she remembered for winning the Nobel Prize but also for being the founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement which was later changed to Community of Peace People. One year later in 1977 she received the Nobel Prize. This all happened because of on night in 1976 when she witnessed the killing of three innocent children in Belfast. Williams was so shocked about what happened that she decided that along with one of the dead child’s aunt to send appeals meaningless use of violence in the issues between Catholics and Protestants in the country. That is how the Community of Peace People was born. In two days she was able to come up with 6,000 signatures on her petition of peace.
Her thrive for peace began when she was very young. Her father was a Protestant and her mother was a Catholic. This caused many issues for them and that is when she began to wish for religious tolerance and peace. This motivation made her join a campaign aimed towards anti violence with the head of it being a Protestant priest. During this time she worked on herself as a person and also learned enough to prepared her to open her own movement. When talking about this point in time she has mentioned how it was crucial for her because each problem became a stepping stone that prepared her.
Looking into her life I see a lot of what I had had to go through with my own parents but in a different way. My mother was born in Guatemala and my dad was born in el Salvador to very strict parents. What happened was that these two families actually have a pretty intense feuded with each other and my mother and father being together was completely unacceptable. They both ended up getting married and eventually moving to the United States when I was two and a half years old. Growing up I also saw how my family was never a “family” because my aunts did not like my mom and spread false rumors to everyone back in Guatemala. Eventually it became too much and when I was 6 they got a divorce. I did not see my dad for about a year after that. He came back into the picture eventually and I began to visit on weekends. I would listen to the way his family would talk about my mom and it bothered me so much because they would actually try to put me against her.
It has been very annoying to see that even after 15 years of them separating, these two families continue to fight each other. I feel like the issue might have stopped but there’s one small other detail, my mother’s brother and my father’s sister got married and 4 years after getting married my uncle was shot. I feel like all of this has put my into a mindset of wanting to get justice. I am not talking about revenge, I am talking about trying to help them find peace with each other because no matter how upset I get they are still my family. I did not realize this until sophomore year of college which is when I decided to switch to Crime and Justice.
Work Cited
Carrie Chapman , Carrie. “Betty Williams -.” Archives of Women’s Political Communication, awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/betty-williams/.