His uncle William Maginn was a journalist who amongst other achievements co-founded and was a notable supporter of Fraser's Magazine.

Maginn excelled at school and was offered a junior teachership at 17 in the Royal London Asylum's Margate Branch.

The move from Ireland to America had a profound effect on Maginn, who felt he now had the ability to achieve a higher level of attainment.

Despite the closure of the association, Francis Maginn and James Paul, a missioner and founder of the National Deaf and Dumb Society, were funded to attend the event marking 100 years anniversary of the death of a French educator and "Father of the Deaf" Charles-Michel de l'Épée.

They made a pact on the train journey to Paris, France, to re-establish a national association and, by the time they arrived in Calais on the way home, the British delegates lent their support.

Maginn had previously met Bell while studying in America, and wrote that "The deaf mutes of the US recognise the fact that he is acting in all sincerity and with the best of intentions and that their esteem for him is not lessened by the contempt in which they hold his theories."

William B. Sleight, he permitted the conference to start earlier on morning of 18 January 1890, to hear the proposal for the establishment of a new national association.

As a consequence of this ruling, a special committee was set up to establish a constitution made up of six deaf and six hearing men, under the chairmanship of Rev.

Maginn hotly disagreed with this decision, objecting to the idea of the "benevolent paternalism" of the hearing friends of the deaf.