Madam, – Senator Twomey’s letter of disapproval regarding Brian Lenihan’s upcoming address at the annual Michael Collins Béal na mBláth commemoration is truly backward and parochial. It is generous of the commemoration committee and the Collins family to invite, and for Mr Lenihan to accept, the offer. This occasion will help to further heal our Civil War scars.
The legacy of Collins belongs to all Irish men as does Wolfe Tone’s, and I am sure the commemoration committee want the Beal na Bláth speech to be an important platform to address the nation – not exclusive to Fine Gael. Mary Robinson gave a thought-provoking speech last year that many could have done well to listen to. Both Mr Lenihan and Collins have had the common task of being minister for finance in difficult times and in this regard I am sure Mr Lenihan will have a message equally worthy of our attention. Collins would be proud to have this occasion used for such a platform of oration for national debate and not political point scoring. Intelligent Fine Gael supporters are appreciative of this. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I note that in the correspondence dealing with this years Michael Collins commemoration, you have changed the heading over the last few days from “Béal na mBláth” to “Béal na Bláth”. This is nearly right.
The place name has nothing to do with flowers and the pseudo-poetic English language rendering “mouth of the flowers” is equally phoney. The “mBláth” distortion is misplaced pedantry.
As the distinguished scholar, Dr Roibeárd Ó hUrdail notes in his authorative article “The place name Béal na Blá”, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 104 (1999), the topography is the key, indicating a river ravine opening up (béal) to a fertile plain (blá), to the northeast.
The correct name-form, therefore, is Béal na Blá (blá being feminine) and this was the mid-Cork pronunciation in my boyhood in the 1940s, at a time when place names still retained their Irish language forms, even in English speech. Dr Ó hUrdail suggests “passage to pasture” as an English rendering. – Yours, etc,