Thousands of people will flock to Béal na Bláth today to mark the assassination of Irish Republican leader
Thousands of people will flock to Béal na Bláth today to mark the assassination of Irish Republican leader Michael Collins.
The main commemoration takes place at 3 pm at the site of the ambush, over 100 years ago.
The ceremony will be marked by a historic joint address by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Táinaiste Leo Varadkar.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will remember Michael Collins as both an "idealist and a realist", at the commemoration ceremony this afternoon.
The organisers of the Michael Collins centenary commemoration hope their decision to invite the first Fianna Fáil Taoiseach to address the event will help heal the wounds of the past.
Laura McGonigle, a member of the Michael Collins Commemoration Committee said:
“It was a big step for us to invite both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. Micheál Martin will be the first-ever Fianna Fáil Taoiseach to give an oration here. But we felt it appropriate to be so inclusive. There is symbolic value in that."
“They (Mr Martin and Leo Varadkar) are living examples of people who previously had differences and who have set them aside to work together and that is exactly what Collins was trying to achieve. We are always trying to heal the wounds of the past.”
Plans are in place for crowds of up to 5,000 people — the estimated crowd size which attended the 90th-anniversary commemoration.
But it was reported by the then Cork Examiner in 1972, that up to 10,000 people attended the 50th-anniversary commemoration event.
