Tom Maguire | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office August 1923 – June 1927 | |
| Constituency | Mayo South |
| In office May 1921 – August 1923 | |
| Constituency | Mayo South–Roscommon South |
| Vice-President of Sinn Féin | |
| In office 1935–1937 | |
| Leader | Cathal Ó Murchadha |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1892-03-28)28 March 1892 Cross,County Mayo, Ireland |
| Died | 5 June 1993(1993-06-05) (aged 101) Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland |
| Resting place | Cross, County Mayo, Ireland |
| Party | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5 |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | |
| Rank | Commandant-general |
| Unit | South Mayo Brigade |
| Battles/wars | |
Thomas Maguire (28 March 1892 – 5 July 1993) was anIrish republican who held the rank of commandant-general in the Western Command of theIrish Republican Army (IRA) and led the SouthMayo flying column.[1]
Maguire was born 28 March 1892 in Cross,County Mayo, the fourth of eleven children of William Maguire, and Mary Grehan.[2] He joined theIrish Volunteers on their foundation in 1913, and after the 1916Easter rising, he formed the first company of Volunteers in Cross in 1917. He was elected as a member ofMayo County Council in June 1920 and was subsequently chairman ofBallinrobe district council.[2]
On 18 September 1920, the Mayo Brigade was reorganised, it was split up into four separate brigades. Maguire was appointed commander of the South Mayo Brigade.
On 3 May 1921, Maguire led an ambush on aRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC) patrol inToormakeady,County Mayo, killing five members of the RIC.[3] Maguire'sflying column then made for thePartry Mountains. One account claimed that the column were surrounded by over 700 soldiers and policemen guided by aeroplanes. Maguire was wounded and his adjutant (Michael O'Brien) killed, but the column managed to escape with no further casualties.[2] British casualties were not revealed but were believed to have been high. Some recent research has raised the possibility that fewer than forty British soldiers were in the vicinity and that Maguire's column was forced to abandon their weapons with only one British officer wounded.[4]
Maguire was involved in numerous other engagements including the Kilfall ambush.[5]
At the1921 election toDáil Éireann, Maguire was returned unopposed asTeachta Dála (TD) forMayo South–Roscommon South as aSinn Féin candidate. He opposed theAnglo-Irish Treaty, and apart from saying "Níl" ("No" in English) when the vote was called, did not participate in any substantial way in the Dáil treaty debates. He was returned unopposed at the1922 general election.[6] At the1923 general election, Maguire faced a contest and succeeded in securing the second of five seats in theMayo South constituency, winning 5,712 votes (17.8%).[7][8] He was a member of theanti-Treaty IRA executive which commanded rebel troops during theIrish Civil War. Maguire was captured by theNational Army while in bed and was told that he would be executed, but his life was spared. While in prison his brother, Sean Maguire, aged 17, was executed by the government.[9]
Maguire remained a TD until 1927. He had initially indicated a willingness to contest theJune 1927 general election as a Sinn Féin candidate but withdrew after the IRA threatened tocourt-martial any member under IRA General Army Order 28, which forbade its members from standing in elections. (Despite this ban, IRA officersSeán Farrell (Leitrim–Sligo) andJohn Madden (Mayo North) contested the election, the latter successfully).
Maguire subsequently drifted out of the IRA and became vice-president of Sinn Féin from 1931 to 1933 during the presidency ofBrian O'Higgins.[10] In 1932, a Mayo IRA officer reported that Maguire, now firmly aligned with Sinn Féin, refused to call on men to join the IRA when speaking at republican commemorations. When challenged on this, Maguire claimed that, as the IRA "were no longer the same as they used to be", he disagreed with the organisation.
In December 1938, Maguire was one of a group of seven people, who had been elected to theSecond Dáil in 1921, who met with the IRA Army Council underSeán Russell. At this meeting, the seven signed over what they contended was the authority of the Government of Dáil Éireann to the Army Council. Henceforth, the IRA Army Council perceived itself to be the legitimate government of theIrish Republic and, on this basis, the IRA and Sinn Féin justified their rejection of the states of theRepublic of Ireland andNorthern Ireland and politicalabstentionism from their parliamentary institutions. According toJ. Bowyer Bell, inThe Secret Army, "With the possible exception of Tom Maguire, who went along, the Dáil members felt that the IRA request gave them the moral recognition so long denied by all factions and that their conditional devolution of power would in turn give the IRA the moral basis for the impending campaign" of 1939–45.[11]
When the majority of IRA and Sinn Féin decided to abandon abstentionism in the 1969–1970 split,Ruairí Ó Brádaigh andDáithí Ó Conaill sought and secured Maguire's recognition of theProvisional IRA Council as thelegitimate successor to the 1938 Army Council. Of the seven 1938 signatories, Maguire was the only one still alive.[fn 1] Maguire's support meant that the Provisional Army Council could claim to being the legitimate government of Ireland and the caretaker of true Irish Republicanism.[12]
Likewise, in the aftermath of the 1986 split in theRepublican Movement, both theProvisional IRA and theContinuity IRA sought Maguire's support.[13] Maguire signed a statement which was issued posthumously in 1996. In it, he conferred legitimacy on the Army Council of theContinuity IRA (who provided a firing party at Maguire's funeral in 1993). InThe Irish Troubles, J. Bowyer Bell describes Maguire's opinion in 1986, "abstentionism was a basic tenet of republicanism, a moral issue of principle. Abstentionism gave the movement legitimacy, the right to wage war, to speak for a Republic all but established in the hearts of the people."[14]
He died on 5 July 1993. He is buried inCross,County Mayo.[15]Republican Sinn Féin have held multiple commemorations by his graveside.
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