Cecil Maguire was born in 1930 in Lurgan, Co. Armagh and graduated from The Queen's University, Belfast in 1951.
In 1967 he was made an Associate of the Royal Ulster Academy and in 1971 began to exhibit at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. In 1974 he became an Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy.

In 1981 he resigned his post as Senior English Master at Lurgan College in order to paint and travel full-time

He spent much of his time living and working in the West of Ireland in Roundstone, Connemara where he felt very much at home in an area which was always an inspiration for much of his work - an area of tranquillity and ever changing landscape.

Cecil Maguire's work has been shown in many solo and group exhibitions. Few important private Irish collections are without at least one example of his work.

In 1993 he was a Gold medal Award winner at the Royal Ulster Academy.

Cecil Maguire passed away in 2020.