Edna Kenny To Be First Serving Taoiseach To Address Béal na mBláth

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny will be the first serving Taoiseach to address the annual Béal na mBláth commemoration in west Cork.

The local committee which organises the annual event decided that the Taoiseach would be the most appropriate person to deliver the speech on the 90th anniversary of Michael Collins’s death at the site during the Civil War.

The event had traditionally been synonymous with Fine Gael until two years ago when the late Brian Lenihan of Fianna Fáil, then minister for finance, was invited to speak.

Dermot Collins, chairman of the Béal na mBláth Committee, said the group were delighted that Mr Kenny had accepted.

“We’re delighted that Mr Kenny has agreed to give this year’s oration – although others who served as taoisigh such as John A Costello, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald have all given the oration, they did so before or after they were taoiseach.

“This is the first time we have a serving Taoiseach giving the oration and we’ve been given great encouragement and support by Mr Kenny and the Taoiseach’s office for this year’s event, which we expect to be one of the biggest in recent years.”

This year’s commemoration will also mark something of a first in another respect as the Rolls-Royce armoured car, Sliabh na mBan, which was part of Michael Collins’s convoy on the day he was killed in 1922, will return to Béal na mBláth.

Acquired by the Free State Army from the British on their departure in 1922, the armoured car, then named Slievenamon, saw action in the Civil War and was used to evacuate Collins’s body from Béal na mBláth to Shanakiel Hospital in Cork.

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