Mairead Maguire is a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She was awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her extraordinary actions to help tackle the religious and political conflict in her homeland. A co-founder of the campaigning organisation Peace People, she has spoken out and acted in protest repeatedly against many injustices, including against the Israeli oppression of Palestinians, and against US military interventions in various countries.  The first declaration of Peace People is:

“We have a simple message to the world from this movement for Peace. We want to live and love and build a just and peaceful society. We want for our children, as we want for ourselves, our lives at home, at work, and at play to be lives of joy and Peace. We recognise that to build such a society demands dedication, hard work, and courage. We recognise that there are many problems in our society which are a source of conflict and violence. We recognise that every bullet fired and every exploding bomb make that work more difficult. We reject the use of the bomb and the bullet and all the techniques of violence. We dedicate ourselves to working with our neighbours, near and far, day in and day out, to build that peaceful society in which the tragedies we have known are a bad memory and a continuing warning.”

Here she speaks plainly with passion about her visit to Syria as part of Mussalaha (Reconciliation), about what people in Syria want, the foreign Jihadi groups in the country being funded and armed by the US and its allies in a proxy war and the false pretexts for war that are being aired in our news media.