Taoiseach Simon Harris 'honoured' to deliver Béal Na Bláth oration

Taoiseach Simon Harris will deliver this year’s address at Béal na Bláth to mark the 102nd anniversary of the death of Michael Collins.

The Michael Collins Commemoration is an annual event which takes place at Béal na Bláth, near the village of Crookstown, to honour the memory of General Michael Collins, the Irish Revolutionary leader who was shot at this location on August 22, 1922 at the age of 31.

More than a century after his death, scores of people continue to visit the Michael Collins monument at Béal na Bláth to pay tribute, and each year, a commemoration is held at the site of his death on the Sunday closest to August 22.

Address

The Béal na Bláth Commemoration committee announced on social media that the Fine Gael leader will play a key role in commemorating Collins by delivering this year’s address.

Mr Harris will become only the third serving Taoiseach to speak at the annual commemoration event, which will take place on Sunday. August 25 at 3pm.

Taoiseach @SimonHarrisTD will deliver this year’s address at Béal na Bláth to mark the 102nd anniversary of the death of Michael Collins.

Commemoration will take place on Sunday August 25th at 3pm. pic.twitter.com/TEIYgCVcKE

— Béal na Bláth Commemoration (@BealnaBlath22) August 8, 2024

The address last year was delivered by former RTÉ Northern editor Tommie Gorman, while both then Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar addressed crowds the previous year for the centenary commemoration.

More than 12,000 people attended the centenary event, the first time leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael delivered the address together.

In 2009, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson gave the oration, and in 2010, then Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan Jnr became the first Fianna Fáil person to deliver the address.

In 2012 on the 90th anniversary of the death of Collins, then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave the oration, the first serving head of government to do so.

Delighted

Cork City South West Fine Gael councillor Garrett Kelleher, who has been chairperson of the Béal na Bláth Commemoration Committee for the past seven years, said that he was delighted that Mr Harris was to attend the ceremony.

“We look forward to hearing the Taoiseach's reflections on the beliefs, hopes and achievements of Michael Collins and of his own perspective on the challenges being faced by the state and the wider world today, over 100 years after the death of Michael Collins.” 

In accepting the invitation to speak, An Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “It is an honour to be asked to Béal na Blá to speak at the 2024 Michael Collins commemoration.

“Every year, we go to the site of the ambush and gather together to remember what Michael Collins gave to Ireland and, with his death at just 31-years-old, to consider what could have been.

“Ireland is a modern, free democracy and this year I will reflect on the ambition we owe to our children and to our heroes like Collins to, in his words, always do the 'right thing in our own conscience'.”