. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

Special to CPNN from Dianne Kirby

When Israel, without warning, unilaterally ended the Gaza ceasefire, the world once more became witness to genocide and ethnic cleansing perpetrated on an unarmed and defenceless civilian population by one of the world’s strongest military establishments, driven by an extreme Zionist influenced government supported by the world’s major powers, including the USA, Britain and the European Union. The unrelenting slaughter of a people already enduring unimaginable suffering moved Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire to an act of imaginative solidarity, 40 days of fasting and prayer.

Mairead Maguire speaking to Democracy Now

A form of creative nonviolent resistance infused with love, a cry from the heart that children should never more suffer war, hers is a sacrificial act of prophetic moral witness. Maguire made her mind and body sites for a penetrating public yet profoundly personal statement that resonates with spiritual protest, civil disobedience and a deep concern for human dignity. It is an expression of compassion and camaraderie that embraces the sorrow and pain of Gaza’s most vulnerable, its children.

Undertaken quietly from the privacy of her home, Maguire’s action was known only to a small circle of friends who advised of her undertaking to previous beneficiaries of her antiwar activism and nonviolent campaigns. The response was overwhelming. Tremendous support came from the international Catholic peace movement Pax Christi. Many Pax Christi members elected to join a rolling fast alongside that of Maguire, with individuals committing to one or more days during Maguire’s forty days. Hunger for Justice Ireland volunteers elected to join Maguire for the final day.

Significant Christian individuals, such a CND vice president Paul Oestreicher, sent moving messages of support, as did Christian organisations such as the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI), Kairos Ireland, and the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre. Important endorsements came from Belfast’s Muslim community during Ramadan, empathetic to the spiritual significance of Maguire’s undertaking. Substantial support was forthcoming from individual trade unionists in Ireland, Britain, Holland and of course Palestine, conscious that the 1st May end date mattered to the world’s workers.

As the volume of messages exceeded the capacity of Maguire’s friends to record and respond, they shifted to an online system that made the process more manageable and the action better known (https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/support-mairead-corrigan-s-40-day-fast-for-palestinian-children-and-world-peace?share=dd9f24bf-0ad3-4ca2-8696-1a3341e4e593&source=email-share-button&utm_medium=myuplift&utm_source=email-share)

Maguire’s activism derives from a compassion and concern for others that was evident from an early age. A youthful volunteer with the Legion of Mary, she was inspired by Catholic peace and social activists such as Dorothy Day and the Berrigan brothers, Daniel and Philip. Her commitment to a life of activism was precipitated by the tragic 1976 deaths of her niece, Joanne, eight years old, and two nephews, John, two years old, and Andrew, six weeks old. Victims of Northern Ireland’s euphemistically termed ‘Troubles’, in reality a dirty, vicious war, their deaths led to the emergence of what came to be known as the ‘Peace People’.

With co-founders Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, the Peace People brought up to 35,000 persons onto the streets of Belfast demanding an end to the conflict. There were also massive rallies in London and Dublin demonstrating resounding opposition to the then escalating violence. Within six months there was a 70 per cent drop in the levels of death and destruction. Although more than two more decades of fighting between the warring parties continued, there was no return to the degree of murder and mayhem witnessed in 1976 when it appeared the country was headed toward civil war.

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In 1977, Maguire and Williams were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. The youngest ever recipient at the time, it marked the beginning of a journey that would take Maguire to conflict zones the world over deploying her Nobel Peace Laureate status to address an array of social and political issues, conflict resolution above all. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, Maguire advocates nonviolence as an active way of life that is ‘daring, creative and courageous.’

A devout Catholic, she believes the forces of love and truth can resolve conflict. She advocates for dialogue and reconciliation, for replacing militarism with listening to opponents, and for allowing God’s spirit to transform man socially and politically. She is committed to human rights and International Law arguing their protection is a moral and legal responsibility for all governments and peoples. Silence is not an option ‘when injustice is being done to anyone, anywhere.’ Not simply speaking ‘truth to power’ but very often becoming involved in direct action against it, brought Maguire into confrontation with the forces of imperialism, colonialism, authoritarianism and oppression. A critic of US foreign policy, Maguire was twice arrested protesting the Iraq War in 2003, once in front of UN headquarters in New York and once in front of the White House in Washington.

Maguire’s inclinations and activism made confrontation with Israel inevitable. She regarded what Israel calls a ‘separation wall’ as a monument to fear and failed politics that made Palestinian life so precarious as to make simple survival an act of resistance. Protesting the construction of the so-called separation barrier in the vicinity of the Palestinian village of Bil’in in April 2007, Maguire came under attack from Israeli military forces using tear gas grenades and rubber-coated bullets. Shot in the leg and debilitated from inhaling tear gas, Maguire required hospitalization. In 2010 Maguire was refused entry to Israel despite being part of a delegation of the Nobel Women’s Initiative. She chose to fight the subsequent deportation order. During the hearing she criticized Israel’s apartheid policy and the siege of Gaza. She was deported the following morning.

In addition to visiting various war zones defending the rights of the oppressed, in 2018 she visited Rohingya camps, Maguire has long been outspoken against nuclear weapons. The recipient of numerous awards and honours, in 1992, Maguire was presented with the Distinguished Peace Leadership Award ‘for her moral leadership and steadfast commitment to social justice and nonviolence.’ Unafraid to adopt controversial causes, Maguire championed fellow speakers of truth to power, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange. Fearless in her support of the downtrodden and dispossessed, Maguire has predictably been subjected to unwarranted smears and vilification. Yet she remains undeterred in pursuit of a better world for all, undaunted in promoting nonviolence as a concept that individuals must accept into their hearts and minds to bring forth new and imaginative life-enhancing structures.

Believing that change is possible, Maguire was cheered to learn that her example had inspired others to follow suit. Notably, the 81-year-old cautioned that fasting is not for everyone and advised:

People should do what they feel they can as not everyone can fast, but they can pray. I once asked Mother Theresa what to do and she said: ‘’Oh pray, pray, never cease to pray – say the Cardinal Newman prayer. That’s a good one!’

Many of those supporting the inspirational Maguire will be neither praying nor fasting. They do, however, share her vision of a better world that rejects endless war and instead promotes equality, justice, peace, prosperity and love for all its children. Responding to the outpouring of support, Maguire expressed gratitude on behalf of children to all that worked ‘to make their precious lives joyful and happy.’

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