The two women behind what became Northern Ireland’s foremost peace movement have been praised for their “immense courage” 50 years after the incident that sparked their activism.
On August 10 1976, the three Maguire children were killed on Finaghy Road North in west Belfast after a car driven by a fatally wounded IRA man crashed.
Danny Lennon had been driving a getaway car at speed when he was pursued and shot dead by a British Army patrol.
The vehicle mounted the footpath and hit railings outside St John the Baptist School, instantly killing six-week-old Andrew Maguire, who was in his pram, and his eight-year-old sister Joanne.
Their two-year-old brother John died of his injuries the following day, while their 32-year-old mother Anne, suffered severe injuries and mental trauma, later taking her own life.
The tragic incident prompted the children’s aunt Mairead Corrigan to set up the Peace People along with the late Betty Williams from Andersonstown.
The movement quickly gained support, with its early rallies attracting tens of thousands of people and international publicity.
A Peace People rally in the summer of 1976 following the deaths of the Maguire children
The two founders were joint recipients of the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize. Mairead Corrigan later married her sister’s widower Jackie.
Speaking to The Irish News last year, Ms Corrigan-Maguire described the Peace People as “a call from the heart to say there’s another way”.
“I always believed political change was coming – like the tide, you don’t stop it. But when violence comes, it destroys the opportunity for quick change. I’m absolutely convinced of that,” she said.
“Violence is always wrong, no matter who uses it, whether it be state violence or the paramilitaries. It is always, always wrong.”
After initially gaining widespread support, the movement’s momentum slowed before petering out amidst public and internal acrimony.
SDLP leader Claire Hanna said anniversaries, such as that of the Maguire children’s deaths, showed “the peace we enjoy today cannot be taken for granted”.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire pictured at her home in Co Down last year. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN
“Anniversaries such as this remind us both of the distance we have travelled and of the better future that people like Mairead Corrigan, Betty Williams and so many worked so hard to achieve,” she said.
“In a week when so many of us have been enjoying and celebrating the best of Belfast and the north, we should remember the extraordinary progress we have made and the activists who kept believing in a peaceful and hopeful future.”
Kenny Donaldson of South East Fermanagh Foundation said those who founded the Peace People showed “immense courage at a time when our community was split asunder”.
“They were prepared to collectively cry out for an end to the violence and a just peace not wanting any further families to be devastated by the pain which flows,” he said.