National army officers erect cross in honour of Michael Collins at ambush site
Cork, 22 June 1923 - A small wooden cross has been erected at the site of the killing of the late Michael Collins. The former revolutionary, Minister and Commander in Chief of the National Army was shot dead in an ambush at Béal na mBláth in his native Cork in August 1922 in the early weeks of the Civil War.
Yesterday, a party of officers from the Cork Command of the National Army visited the scene and erected on the roadside a small wooden cross at the point where Mr. Collins fell. The cross, which bears an inscription in Irish and faces the roadway and joins one or two others that had been previously erected.
Yesterday's short ceremony was attended by, amongst others, the sister of Michael Collins, Mrs. Powell, who was given an account of events at Béal na mBláth - a back-road situated about halfway between Bandon and Macroom - on the day that her brother was killed. Prayers were said at the site before the officers and the late Commander’s sister returned to Cork City.
An excerpt from RTÉ documentary, Cold Case Collins: MEMORY AND HISTORY
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
