A few days after having Sunday lunch at the hotel where Michael Collins ate his last meal, we found ourselves on the road to Beal na Bla.
We had gone to get hay and the hayman was out to lunch, so we followed the heritage signs to the site of the ambush where Collins was shot dead.
The events of 22 August 1922 immortalised this picturesque valley in West Cork near to where the builder boyfriend and I have bought an old country house. Beal na Bla, or Blath, translates as ‘entrance to the good land’.
The memorial by the curve in the road where Collins was murdered is surrounded by lush pastureland.
We pulled the pick-up truck into a layby and walked along a newly made walkway installed for the 100-year anniversary so that Leo Varadkar could have some razzmatazz when he visited with the TV cameras.
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