placenamesBealnablath
Béal na Blá
The road at Béal na Blá became a place of national memory after Michael Collins was killed here during the Civil War.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Béal na Blá · Irish · main form
- Bealnablath · English · main form
- Béal na Bláth · English · main form · local name
- Bealnabla · English · main form
Place & story
The ambush of 22 August 1922
Michael Collins passed through Béal na Blá while touring West Cork on 22 August 1922. Anti-Treaty officers recognised his convoy and prepared an ambush for its return. By evening most of the ambush party had dispersed, leaving a small group dismantling a mine when the vehicles reappeared at about half past seven. A firefight followed. Collins, travelling with Emmet Dalton, was struck in the head and killed near its close. [2]
The journey back to Cork
Collins was the only person killed in the encounter. His remains were taken that night to Shanakiel Hospital in Cork. The next day a National Army escort accompanied them through the city to Penrose Quay, where they were placed aboard the SS Classic for the journey to Dublin. Cork Public Museum preserves images of that passage, including a postcard of the ship, alongside contemporary reports of his death. [2]
A changed roadside landscape
Archaeologists Damian Shiels and Niall Murray compared historical maps, photographs and eyewitness accounts to reconstruct the ambush landscape. Their work shows that road widening removed much of the original bend near the memorial, and the stream beside it was diverted and channelled. Some low roadside banks survive farther south. They caution that the exact place where Collins fell is difficult to establish, and place the likely location south of the monument, on the western side of the road. [3]
The memorial and the event
The large stone cross commemorates Collins, but should not be treated as an exact marker of his fatal wound. Shiels and Murray distinguish the monument’s later setting from the moving positions of vehicles and combatants in 1922. Their reconstruction gives the surrounding road, banks and lanes a place in understanding the event, alongside the conspicuous memorial. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Cork
- Barony
- Muskerry West
- Civil parish
- Kilmurry
- Within
- Glannarouge East
- Coordinates
- 51.82173, -8.85373
- Logainm ID
- 1167096 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bealnablath. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- By a Treaty Divided: The Civil War in Cork, Death of Michael Collins · Cork Public Museum
- The Archaeology of an Ambush: Surviving Traces of Béal na Blá, 19 August 2022 · Damian Shiels and Niall Murray, RTÉ / Atlas of the Irish Revolution
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-08-05. How this page was prepared.