Williams, Betty (1943– )

Northern Irish peace activist. Born in Belfast into a Roman Catholic family, she shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1976 with Mairead Corrigan, for founding the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (popularly known as the ‘Peace People’). This initiative was formed in reaction to the sectarian and terrorist violence in Northern Ireland. Williams and Corrigan shared the Nobel Prize, but policy disagreements led Williams to quit the movement four years later.