Sam Smeadon (Napoleon's World)

Samuel Smeadon (October 3, 1836 - January 14, 1902) was an Irish military officer and politician, best known and celebrated as the first President of the Second Irish Republic from 1885-1895 and who was the chief architect of its New Constitution, which he helped pen following the Irish Republican Army's victory in the Irish Civil War (1882-1885).

As President of Ireland for ten years, Smeadon oversaw a rapid modernization and economic boom in Ireland, in which the country became increasingly industrialized and urbanized in cities such as Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry and Cork. By the time of his retirement in 1895, he had transformed Ireland from a decentralized rural backwater prone to infighting and religious tension into a rapidly growing power with oversea colonies and European clout, known as the Irish Miracle.