Michael Collins (Napoleon's World)

Michael "Mick" Collins (Irish: 'Míċeál Ó Coileáin;' 16 October 1890 - 4 May 1949) was an Irish military leader and politician who served as President of Ireland between 1932 and 1941, replacing and succeeded by Eamon de Valera, his political rival. During his Presidency, Ireland fought and won the Irish War, the preparations for which Collins was elected. He also supported a lack of dependency on foreign powers and emphasized central planning for the Irish economy, which went into decline after the 1920's Age Without Limit. Collins added a robust social program to his agenda and deemphasized cultural conservatism, leading to the defection of the Christian Democrats and the Nationalists from the Conservative Party, splitting the Irish political right into three groups with the Conservatives filling in the center-right. Collins suffered a stroke in 1941 at only the age of 50 which left him wheelchair bound, causing him to relinquish the Presidency to the incumbent Taioseach, his rival de Valera of the Nationalists.