Background
He was born in Belfast in 1921.
He was born in Belfast in 1921.
He lived in the loyalist Tiger"s Bay area and was educated at Street Barnabas".
He left school at 14 and served in the Royal Air Force. On leaving the armed forces he worked as a labourer, then civil servant, before becoming a full-time writer He was founding chairman of the Peace Train Organisation which protested against the bombing of the Dublin-Belfast railway line.
McAughtry made many contributions to radio and television programmes, giving his memories of life in Belfast as well as political analysis during the troubles.
He was also a regular columnist in The Irish Times. Others from Northern Ireland such as Gordon Wilson, Maurice Hayes, John Robb, Sam Kyle, Seamus Mallon and Brid Rodgers were appointed by the Taoiseach.
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He died on 28 March 2014.
(Radio stories of a Belfast boyhood.)
He was a trade union and Northern Ireland Labour Party member, he stood unsuccessfully for elections on a non-sectarian socialist platform.
Sam McAughtry was elected a member of the Seanad Éireann, the Irish senate, in 1996 by the Industrial and Commercial Panel.