 When the majority of IRA and Sinn Féin decided to abandon abstentionism in the 1969–70 split, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill sought and secured Maguire's recognition of the Provisional IRA as the legitimate successor to the 1938 Army Council.Of the seven 1938 signatories, Maguire was the only one still alive.Likewise, in the aftermath of the 1986 split in the Republican Movement, both the Provisional IRA and the Continuity IRA sought Maguire's support.