Mairead Maguire, formerly known as Mairead Corrigan, is a peace activist who co-founded Community for Peace People with Ciaran McKeown and Betty Williams. The organization is dedicated towards encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. For their work, Maguire and Williams were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. She was also was a co-founder of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a non-sectarian organization of Northern Ireland which defends human rights and advocates repeal of the government’s emergency laws. Born into a large family, she had to drop out of school at the age of 14. She started working and soon saved enough money to fund a year of education at Miss Gordon's Commercial College. Even though she was active in community work from a young age, she became active with the Northern Ireland peace movement following a personal tragedy that led to the founding of Community for Peace People. Her relentless work with the community, advocating a nonviolent resolution of the Northern Ireland conflict earned her much respect and acclaim, including the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 32. She continues to be active in peace work and was one of the founders of the Nobel Women's Initiative along with fellow Peace Prize laureates Betty Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Jody Williams, and Rigoberta Menchú Tum.