John Philip Bagwell

After Oxford, he joined the Midland Railway, England, where he served as an assistant superintendent of line from 1905 to 1909. He then returned to Ireland and served as superintendent of passenger services from 1910 to 1911.^[3] Bagwell was general manager of Ireland's Great Northern Railways (GNR) between 1911 and 1926.^[5]

Bagwell became an independent member of Seanad Éireann in the Irish Free State in 1922, and held that office until 1936.^[6] He was nominated to the Seanad by the President of the Executive Council in 1922 for 6 years.^[7] He was elected for six years in 1928. He was re-elected for a further six years in 1934, but served until the abolition of the Free State Seanad in 1936.^[3]

During the Irish Civil War he was kidnapped from near his house in Howth and held hostage by anti-Treaty forces in the Dublin Mountains. The Free State government responded by issuing a proclamation to the effect that if Bagwell were not safely released, reprisals would be taken.^[8][9]

Bagwell, however, maintained that he escaped his captors through his own efforts and his safe release could not be attributed to these threats.^[10] At around the same time, the family residence at Marlfield House, Clonmel, County Tipperary, was burned by anti-Treaty forces and the library of rare historical documents destroyed.^[11]