He came to the attention of the public during the miners strikes of 1972 and 1974. He later claimed these were purely industrial disputes, made political by the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath. Nevertheless, he took a characteristically militant line, opposing some of the tactics of Gormley, accusing him of ""ballotisis"" and swearing he would not be ""constitutionalised"" out of a national strike. Gormley, it was later claimed, postponed his own retirement until 1981, by which time McGahey was over 55, too old by union rules to stand for President.