Simon Harris, the sitting Taoiseach, is confirmed to give this year’s address at Béal na Bláth, honouring the 102nd death anniversary of Michael Collins who lost his life in an anti-Treaty IRA ambush during the Civil War in his home county of west Cork. Collins’ demise is commemorated each year, with the ceremony held on the Sunday nearest to August 22nd, the date Collins was fatally ambushed on his return from assessing Free State forces.
Garret Kelleher, Chairman of the annual Michael Collins Commemoration Committee, has confirmed that Taoiseach Harris has accepted the invitation. This will mean Taoiseach Harris is only the third acting Taoiseach to deliver a speech at this gathering.
In his appreciation, Taoiseach Harris stated that it was a privilege to be asked to contribute to the event, which reflects on Collins’ contributions to Ireland and the legacy he left behind. Taoiseach Harris plans to use his address to highlight the obligation we have to our future generations and to national icons like Collins, focussing on Collins’ advice to ‘always do the right thing in our own conscience’.
Taoiseach Harris will join the ranks of Enda Kenny, the first sitting Taoiseach to deliver the oration in 2012, and Micheál Martin, who, in 2022, became the second Fianna Fáil politician to do so, following former finance minister Brian Lenihan in 2010.
Micheál Martin was accompanied by then Tánaiste Leo Varadkar for his address at the 100th commemoration while President Michael D Higgins gave the address at the 2016 event marking 100 years since the Easter 1916 Rising in which Collins served as aide-de-camp to Joseph Plunkett. Other eminent personalities including film producer David Puttnam, late RTÉ broadcaster Bill O’Herlihy, George Hook, the SDLP’s Bríd Rodgers and Mark Durkan, Senator Maurice Manning along with the late historian John A Murphy have all addressed this significant event in the past.
Only a year following his death, the first memorial event for Collins took place at Béal na Bláth in August 1923. Among the attendees were his friend, Gen Richard Mulcahy, his fiancée Kitty Kiernan, and members of his family. Gen Mulcahy gave a brief oration during the event, which was a small gathering.
The Irish army acquired land alongside the road in Béal na Bláth the following year. A large Celtic cross, made from limestone, was commissioned to stand there. However, due to technical issues, the monument was constructed on the opposite side of the road where Collins was killed.
A tribute to Collins was disclosed at the ambush location in August 1924. The unveiling was done by Gen Eoin O’Duffy, the Garda commissioner at the time, as well as WT Cosgrave, the Free State government’s chairman. The ceremony drew a crowd of hundreds, including a contingent from the Irish army.
Despite a few years in the 1920s where no memorial ceremonies took place, since the 1930s there have been yearly commemorations on the ambush site. However, these did not always attract large crowds.
According to Mr O’Mahony, a nephew of Collins’s brother Johnny, he recalls attending the 40th-year memorial in August 1962 with his late uncle Liam Collins. He remarks on the loneliness of the event due to the lack of attendees.
Mr O’Mahony remembers their arrival timing around 7:40pm, only half an hour away from the estimated time of Collins’s shooting at around 8:10pm. They believe the shooting may have happened later because Collins and Sean Hales stopped in Bandon, possibly for a drink at a local pub.
The atmosphere was cloudy because mist was rising off the stream. The trees could not absorb the mist, likening the view of the ambushers who would not have clearly identified anyone in particular. However, they might have recognised there was an officer due to the cap, possibly being Collins, Dalton, or O’Connell.
The centenary event of Collins’s death observed an impressive turnout, with over 10,000 people present to commemorate him.
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