Career
Born into an Irish Republican family, he was interned during his youth for Irish Republican Army activities. While he later opposed violence, he remained close to the Republican movement. While not an abstentionist, Maguire"s attendances at Westminster were infrequent and he never made a full speech, but he did cast some crucial votes to support the Labour government of the 1970s.
He is famous for "abstaining in person" in the no confidence vote which brought it down by a single vote.
He was attracted to the cause of Irish Republicanism and was interned without trial in Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast for two years, within which he was the Irish Republican Army Commanding Officer. After his release, he opposed violence and became a public landlord himself.
He did remain associated with Sinn Féin. In the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency, there was a close balance between Irish Nationalist and Republican, and Unionist voters.
Election to United Kingdom Parliament
Maguire was elected in the October 1974 general election with more than half the vote.
On 31st October 1974 he swore the Oath of Allegiance to Queen Elizabeth World War II Although not an abstentionist, he rarely attended the House of Commons. He did attend for the 1979 vote of no confidence in the government of James Callaghan to, as he wryly told a journalist, "abstain in person". The government called an election, and Maguire was re-elected against opposition from a dissident Social Democratic and Labour Party candidate, as well as from both the Ulster Unionist Party and the United Ulster Unionist Party.
