In 1883 Maguire came across a copy of The Christian Socialist in the local secular hall and was converted, helping to establish a branch of the Social Democratic Federation in September 1884.
In 1885, the Leeds branch of the Social Democratic Federation dissolved and declared themselves as members of the breakaway Socialist League headed by William Morris.
It was here he met other leading Socialist figures in the area, including Isabella Ford, Edward Carpenter, Ben Turner and Alf Mattison.
[3] After the Socialist League split, Maguire joined the Independent Labour Party and attended its founding conference at Bradford in 1893.
[5] Many of Maguire's poems from the Labour Leader about the lives of working-class women were gathered together for the collection Machine-Room Chants, which was published posthumously in 1895 and included a foreword written by Keir Hardie.