Meredith Francis Maguire (September 1929 – 5 March 1981) was an Independent Republican

Independent Republican

Independent Republicans may refer to:*Independent Republican *Independent Republicans of France*Independent Republican *Independent-Republican Party of Minnesota 1975-95...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)

Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a Parliamentary constituency in the British House of Commons. The current MP for the constituency is Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin....

.

Early Life

Born in Lisnaskea

Lisnaskea

Lisnaskea is the second-biggest settlement in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 2,739 people in the 2001 Census. The town is built around the long main street, which bends at almost 90 degrees along its course.- History :...

 and educated in Athlone, Maguire worked in his youth in a pub owned by his uncle, future Nationalist Party

Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)

The Nationalist Party† - was the continuation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and was formed after partition, by the Northern Ireland-based members of the IPP....

 politician John Carron

John Carron

John Carron was a nationalist politician in Northern Ireland.Carron was born in Kinawley, County Fermanagh in 1909. He became a farmer and a publican before becoming a founder member and Vice-Chairman of the Irish Anti-Partition League in Lisnaskea in May 1946...

. He was attracted to the cause of Irish Republicanism and was interned

Internment

Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...

 without trial in Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 for two years, within which he was the Irish Republican Army

Irish Republican Army

The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...

 Commanding Officer. After his release, he opposed violence and became a pub landlord himself. He did remain associated with Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

.

Political Career

In the Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)

Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a Parliamentary constituency in the British House of Commons. The current MP for the constituency is Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin....

 constituency, there was a close balance between Irish Nationalist and Republican, and Unionist voters. In the February 1974 UK general election

United Kingdom general election, February 1974

The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...

, the Nationalist/Republican vote was split between a Unity

Unity (Northern Ireland)

"Unity" was the political label for a series of electoral pacts by Irish nationalist and Irish Republican candidates in Northern Ireland elections in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

 and a Social Democratic and Labour Party

Social Democratic and Labour Party

The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

 (SDLP) candidate leading to victory for the Ulster Unionist Party

Ulster Unionist Party

The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 candidate. With the aim of fielding a single candidate, discussions among nationalist and republicans in the constituencies agreed Maguire as a joint candidate - in what has been termed the spirit of the Unity movement.

Election to UK Parliament

Maguire was elected in the October 1974 general election

United Kingdom general election, October 1974

The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.The election of...

 with more than half the vote. Although not an abstentionist, he rarely attended the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

. He did attend for the 1979 vote of no confidence in the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 government to, as he wryly told a journalist, "abstain in person".

The government called an election, and Maguire was re-elected against opposition from a dissident SDLP candidate, as well as from both the Ulster Unionist Party

Ulster Unionist Party

The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 and the United Ulster Unionist Party

United Ulster Unionist Party

The United Ulster Unionist Party was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1984.It emerged from a division in the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party in the late 1970s...

.

Death

Maguire's death in 1981 produced a by-election

Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election, 1981 (April)

The by-election held in Fermanagh and South Tyrone on 9 April 1981 is considered by many to be the most significant by-election held in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It saw the first victory for the militant republican movement, which the following year entered electoral politics in full...

 which was won by Bobby Sands

Bobby Sands

Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze....

, an IRA hunger striker who would ultimately die within a month of being elected.

External links

• The Night the Government Fell, BBC archive on the 1979 vote of confidence, including photo of Maguire