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New Rochelle, NY, October 2, 2000 - On Friday, October 13th, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland will present "The Pathways of Peace," a commitment to compassion and justice and the rejection of violence as a problem solving method. The address will take place at 7:30 pm in Spellman Lounge on the Iona campus at 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle. The public is welcome. There is no charge, but donations that enable worldwide peace initiatives to continue will gladly be accepted.

Ms. Maguire, a 1977 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, is known for her work in founding The Community of Peace People of Northern Ireland with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown. The Community was the first interfaith nonviolence and reconciliation movement in Northern Ireland, and was created out of the immense social and personal tragedy of "The Troubles," including the death of three of Ms. Maguire's sister's children on the streets of Belfast. The deaths prompted a series of marches and demonstrations throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, demanding an end to the violence.

An internationally renowned peace advocate and voice for nonviolence and reconciliation, Ms. Maguire has received numerous honors and awards including, among others, the Norwegian People's Prize, an honorary doctorate from Yale University, and The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's "Distinguished Peace Leadership Award." She was selected as a special honoree of the United Nations "Women of Achievement" program, and is a Patron of the Society of Founders of the International Peace University. She has traveled widely, including Latin America as the guest of Nobel Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel, whom Ms. Maguire first nominated for the Peace Prize. Her most recent book is entitled The Vision of Peace: Faith and Hope in Northern Ireland (Orbis 2000).

Along with other living Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, Ms. Maguire is one of the initiators of Manifesto 2000: The Global Movement for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. Their efforts have moved the United Nations to declare the first ten years of the new millennium "The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World."

Currently, Ms. Maguire and others travel throughout the world promoting the United Nation's International Decade of Peace, in collaboration with the world's spiritual leaders and peacemakers. Specifically, they are seeking support from heads of state on every continent for Manifesto 2000, adopted by the General Assembly in 1998.

The International Decade for A Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World is intended to bring attention to the plight of children, worldwide, who suffer from physical and psychological violence, the violence of poverty, and environmental and political violence. The Laureates are asking that nonviolence be taught at every level in society during the first decade of the 21st century, so that a culture of nonviolence can be established and nurtured, replacing violence as a method of problem solving.

Ms. Maguire's visit to Iona is sponsored by The Iona Spirituality Institute, Peace and Justice Institute, Office of Mission Integration, Student Development, the Center for Campus Ministries, Women's Studies, Department of Social Work and the Visitation Institute of the Congregation of Notre Dame. She will speak at a Convocation for the College community earlier in the day.

For more information on The Pathways of Peace: An Evening with Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, please contact Sister Kathleen Deignan at (914) 633-637-2590.

For questions or more information please contact:
Meghan Finn
Public Relations Office
Iona College, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801
tel: 914 633-2005 fax: 914 637-2711

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