After the formation of the Irish Free State, some previous unionists, who had initially opposed the country’s political independence, opted to participate in the nation’s civic sphere. Among them was John Bagwell, who was born 150 years ago, on the 11th of August.
John Philip Bagwell, commonly referred to as “Jack”, was the sole son of Richard Bagwell from Marlfield, Clonmel, in County Tipperary. The Bagwells’ ancestry in Ireland can be traced back to a member of Cromwell’s New Model Army. His paternal grandfather, also named John, had served as a Liberal Member of Parliament representing Clonmel between 1857 and 1874. Jack’s father, Richard, was a respected historian of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries, having authored two esteemed books, namely ‘Ireland Under the Tudors’ and ‘Ireland Under the Stuarts’. His mother, Harriet Newton from Bagenalstown, County Carlow, was a behind a successful local embroidery cottage industry in Tipperary and was known for her philanthropic activities.
Jack Bagwell’s educational journey began at Harrow School in London, and continued on to Trinity College in Oxford. Afterward, he worked for the English Midland Railway, where he served as assistant superintendent of line from 1905 to 1909. Post this role, he returned to Ireland and took up the job of superintendent of passenger services (1910-1911), eventually becoming the general manager of the Great Northern Railway, a position he upheld from 1911 to 1926. In 1901, he wedded Louise Shaw, the youngest child of Major-General George Shaw, CB, and they had two sons and one daughter.
During the event of the Easter Rising, as he and his spouse were heading away from the St Stephen’s Green conflict on Harcourt Street, Dublin, they became victims of a shooting, fortunately surviving the attack. Known for his firm unionist beliefs, he secured a place on the executive panel of the Irish Unionist Alliance in 1920, whilst also participating on its standing and finance and general-purpose panels. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty was negotiated and adopted by the Dáil, he was appointed to the newly formed Seanad Éireann in late 1922 by WT Cosgrave, the governing council’s president. As noted by Pauric J Dempsey, who authored his biography in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, he served bravely there until it was disbanded in 1936. Initially appointed for a six-year term in 1922, his tenure was extended with re-elections in November 1928 and 1934.
His seat in the Seanad meant that the Marlfield family estate, renowned for its prominent library and valuable items, fell victim to anti-Treaty forces and was destroyed by fire on January 9th, 1923, as noted by Dempsey. On January 30th of the same year, while leisurely strolling with his wife near their residence in Howth, Co Dublin, he was abducted by men opposing the Treaty and confined in the Dublin Mountains. The government threatened the abductors with retaliatory shootings of anti-Treaty prisoners if he wasn’t dismissed within a day. He managed to break free on February 1st. Although Dempsey credits the governmental announcement for assisting in his escape, he maintained that he escaped via his own endeavour. The firsthand account of his abduction and evasion is documented in the National Library of Ireland, positioned under the call number Ms 49,808.
As a vigorous participant of the largely ex-Unionist Independent batch in the Free State Seanad, he made his mark. One of the controversial stances he took included resisting the Shannon electrification scheme by the government, going as far as cautioning his comrades against channeling their finances into the scheme. When divorce came up for debate in 1925, he endorsed a standpoint akin to that of WB Yeats and several Anglo-Irish Protestant members, asserting that the Catholic majority ought not to enforce their religious perspectives on the minority.
The bill limiting uniform use was introduced in 1934 by Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil government to ban the donning of the blue shirt by Eoin O’Duffy’s followers. Bagwell contested the bill, contending that the government never formally recognised the IRA. After the Bill was dismissed, de Valera put forward legislation in the Dáil to dissolve the upper house in 1936, which effectively concluded Bagwell’s tenure in politics.
Prior to independence, like his father, he acted as deputy lieutenant and a justice of the peace for Co Tipperary and maintained an active role as the head of the Clonmel Agricultural Society for a lengthy period and had an immense contribution to the Clonmel Horse Show. An enthusiast of horse riding and hunting, his love for long-distance walking was also evident. Following the reconstruction of the Marlfield House in 1925, replicating its Georgian original design, he resided there until his demise on 22nd of August, 1946 aged 72.
This unionist acceptingly adapted to the transformed political landscape of his ancestral land nearly three centuries after his forebears settled there, leaving an undeniable mark through his services.