[1] Gatland was born Maria McGuire, to a middle-class family, and lived in the suburb of Churchtown, Dublin.
Three months later, in October 1971, she accompanied Dáithí Ó Conaill (a leader of the Republican movement, also known as David O'Connell) to the European continent on an arms buying expedition.
[1][3][4] Provisional IRA bomb attacks in Belfast, on 21 July 1972 (known as Bloody Friday) killed seven civilians and two soldiers, and left 130 injured.
[1] When the Conservative Party found out about her past she stepped down as a council cabinet member in early December 2008.
Around 1986 McGuire moved to Croydon where she met and married her late husband Mervyn Gatland, who ran a garden maintenance business.