Mairead Corrigan-Maguire (born 1944) and Betty Williams-Perkins (born 1943) were the founders of the women's peace movement in Northern Ireland in 1976. The movement sponsored marches by women from the rival communities in the province in protest against violence and drew international attention and acclaim. They were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1976 when their efforts were credited with reducing the death toll in Northern Ireland by half.

Mairead Corrigan, born January 27, 1944, was the second child in a West Belfast Catholic working class family of five girls and two boys. She attended St. Vincent's Primary School and as a teenager went to Miss Gordon's Commercial College in Belfast, which qualified her for a clerical position. She advanced to become the confidential secretary to the managing director of the Guinness Brewery in Belfast. Her organizational involvement was primarily church-oriented, being an activist member of the Legion of Mary, a lay...