Father Maguire became revered by the members of the -church and honored by the community. One of his good friends was Dr. William Benjamin, the rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, just across the road. Dr. Benjamin's daughter, Miss Isabel Benjamin, tells of this relationship in her book, From Dawn to Twilight:

"Father Maguire was a great friend of children, and we loved him. One day my nurse took me over to see the priest. He was seated alone at his lunch table. I must have been struck by his aloneness, because I said, “Father, where are Mrs. Maguire and all the little Maguires?” He took me to a beautiful picture of the Blessed Virgin, and in a language a little girl could understand, explained that this was the Lady to whom he had dedicated his life.”

A man admired for his understanding, Father Maguire was quick to acclaim virtue in others. He is quoted as saying of the Protestant wife of Thomas Murphy (a trustee of the parish for 53 years), "If I had any orphans, I would like them brought up by Jane Murphy.'.' Some descendants of these Murphys' 11 children are well known in Irvington today.
 
But this liberal man was at the same time an intransigent crusader against alcohol. He organized many Temperance rallies, which were often preceded by parades down Broadway. On one such occasion in April, 18 76, the Tarrytown Argus commented on the "remarkable contrast between those persons with bright and happy countenance and those of the rum-selling and rum-drinking fraternity who assembled on the corners ... with sad and careworn countenance'.'
 
But Father Maguire also had problems, as is shown by a letter he wrote in 1890 to Archbishop Michael Corrigan. The Jetter was in response to a directive from the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884) urging all parishes to start parochial schools if they had not already done so. The message began with the reminder that before going to Irvington, Father Maguire had been promised by the Archbishop that he would not have to start a school if he did not think that the parish could support it. "It is my opinion that it could not:' Father Maguire reported in his letter.
 
Things were so bad, he wrote, that he had received no. salary at all in his first 13 years in Irvington. Finally, Father Maguire stated, "I hope Your Grace will not insist on undertaking works that in my old age, nearly 70 years, and broken down of health, it would be an impossibility for me to accomplish. I would be delighted to have a school, did I suppose I could accomplish it.
 
Archbishop Corrigan seems not to have forced the issue, for the parish had no school when Father Maguire retired in September, 1891, and returned to his native town of Bundoran in County Donegal, Ireland. An inscription in the main window of the Bundoran Church notes that he had been the founder of the Immaculate Conception Church in Irvington.