Béal na Bláth: Tommie Gorman to deliver oration at Michael Collins commemoration

Former RTÉ northern editor Tommie Gorman will deliver this year’s oration at Béal na Bláth to mark the 101st anniversary of the death of Michael Collins in the Civil War, the Michael Collins Commemoration Committee have confirmed.

Committee chairman Cllr Garret Kelleher said the committee was delighted when Mr Gorman accepted their invitation to speak at this year’s event on August 20th.

“Tommie has reported on many complex and delicate political situations and in so doing, he has earned the respect and trust of all of those with whom he dealt. He has a deep understanding of our history and appreciation of its relevance to the issue which confront us today.”

Mr Gorman told The Irish Times he was surprised but hugely honoured to speak at this year’s commemoration, which marks the death of Collins, who was killed on August 22nd, 1922, when his convoy of National Army troops was attacked by anti-Treaty IRA at Béal na Bláth in west Cork.

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“I was surprised by the invite for a start – it came from left field and I’m very conscious of the honour that’s involved but also the responsibility because I don’t think many reporters have been asked to speak at the ceremony over the years,” said Mr Gorman.

“I would be very conscious of how the outworkings of that period from 1914 and the decade that followed, continues to be at the very heart of political and public life in Ireland so I am very conscious of the role that Collins and his contemporaries had in shaping our present and our future,” he said.

“When the invite came, I was keen to find out why they were asking me and I think it’s because of the 20 years I spent in Belfast but also the 12 years I spent in Brussels and whatever remarks I make will take into account that experience.

“My remarks, I hope, will have a consciousness of the all-Ireland dimension but also a consciousness of the European dimension ... our responsibility really as the generation that is building the new Ireland is in taking on the next phase of the challenge that faced Collins and his contemporaries.”

Mr Gorman will be following in the footsteps of leading political figures such as Micheál Martin; Leo Varadkar, who addressed last year’s 100th anniversary ceremony; President Michael D Higgins; and Enda Kenny as well as others such as David Puttnam and Prof John A Murphy.