Samuel Jamison McAughtry was born at 130 Cosgrave Street, Belfast, Ireland, on 24 March 1921, approximately six weeks before the country's partition.
[2] Having successfully passed the entrance exam his ambition was to become a plain clothes detective, however during his interview with a senior officer it was pointed out to him that his initial posting would be to a rural area, where among his main duties he was to expect to have to help the local farmers fill in their agricultural census in order to record the makeup of their farm.
[2] He undertook a career as a civil servant, ironically carrying out the correlation of agricultural census papers from rural areas,[2] before becoming a full-time writer.
[4] McAughtry was a founding member of the Peace Train Organisation, which protested against the bombing of the Dublin–Belfast railway line and in which he undertook the role of chairman.
[6] Others from Northern Ireland such as Gordon Wilson, Maurice Hayes, John Robb, Sam Kyle, Seamus Mallon and Bríd Rodgers were nominated by the Taoiseach.