[2] According to his blog, his father was a good friend of Irish playwright Seán O'Casey, and shared battle experiences with war correspondent and international author, Ernest Hemingway.
Although initially seen as not being leadership material he soon gained publicity for the BM by leading the campaign to free Robert Relf, who, at the time, had considerable sympathy in sections of the press.
McLaughlin's leadership came under fire from deputy leader Ray Hill, who commanded the respect of the BM's large racist skinhead following and who was also working in secret for the magazine Searchlight.
McLaughlin was forced to use BM funds to fight the case whilst Hill was able to call upon the expertise of his close associate Anthony Reed Herbert.
McLaughlin ran a series of army surplus outlets, notably Rucksack n'Rifle in northern Wales, which specialised in survivalism, during the late 1980s.
Under that name, he began writing intensely pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler articles for long-time neo-Nazi American activist Gerhard Lauck on the latter's website under the topic-heading United Kingdom News Desk by Michael Walsh.
[16] McLaughlin/Walsh writes an irregular column on the website of the Historical Review Press in Sussex, under the title "Contemporary Comments from the News Desk of Michael Walsh".