Frank Maguire (politician)

Meredith Francis Maguire (2 September 1929 – 5 March 1981) was an Irish Republican who became an Independent Member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Born into an Irish republican family, he was interned during his youth for Irish Republican Army activities; while he later opposed violence, he remained close to the republican movement. He was running Frank's Bar, a public house in Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh, when he was elected as a unity candidate to represent Fermanagh and South Tyrone at the October 1974 general election. While not an abstentionist, Maguire's attendances at Westminster were infrequent and he never made a full speech, but he did cast some crucial votes to support the Labour government of the 1970s. He attended the no confidence vote against the Callaghan government, which brought it down by a single vote, to "abstain in person".