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.
Born in Gort, County Galway, and educated in Athlone, Maguire worked in his youth in a pub owned by his uncle, future Nationalist Party politician John Carron.
[2] In the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency there was a close balance between Irish Nationalist and Republican, and Unionist voters.
[4] At the resulting 1979 general election, Maguire was re-elected against candidates from the SDLP, the UUP, and the United Ulster Unionist Party.
Maguire's death in 1981 (due to a heart attack)[5] produced a by-election which was won by Bobby Sands, an IRA hunger striker who died within a month of being elected.