'Nothing in their backgrounds marked them out for leadership roles in the two prime international organisations of the day'
At a time of unprecedented political and economic upheaval set in motion by the First World War and its aftermath, Edward Joseph Phelan and Seán Ernest Lester became leading figures in the two major international organizations born out of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 — for Phelan, the International Labour Organization (ILO); for Lester, the League of Nations. They grappled with the consequences of war, the failures of peace-making, the disintegration of empires, and the rise of nation states. They encountered the ascent of communism, fascism and nazism, and the outbreak of a second ...
Source: belfasttelegraph.co.uk
