Jack Lynch (Napoleon's World)

John Mary "Jack" Lynch (15 August 1917 - 20 October 1999) was an Irish politician of the Labour Party, serving two nonconsecutive terms as President of Ireland, his first term from 1970-1971, and his second from 1979-1982. His second term is typically his most celebrated, as he diffused the volatile Belfast Crisis and amended the Constitution to ease many of the ethnic and religious tensions permeating Ireland in the 1970's and early 1980's. Weary of politics after his long, arduous fight with both politicians in the Dail Eireann and with protesters and terrorists in Northern Ireland, Lynch resigned from office in November of 1982 to give way to another former President, Liam Cosgrave. Lynch was one of the strongest advocates of the Irish nuclear energy and atomic weapons programs within his own party, which was famously divided over the issue - a division which would cause its own collapse in the 1985 general election.