Sir, – John A Murphy’s mini-diatribe on the spelling of “Béal na Blá” (August 16th) is strong in tone but weak in information. (It might have given a hint about what R Ó hUrdail had to say in the cited journal article of 1999.) Many of your readers might admit that “Béal na mBláth” sounds pedantic.
They may admit that someone with a runny nose may find it hard to pronounce. But they must admit that it makes sense grammatically.
But what of the puzzling “Béal na Blá”? Does that make sense grammatically? “Na blá” looks like the possessive case singular of a feminine noun, but “blá” is masculine. If “na blá” is plural, Mr Murphy should explain the “immemorial” west Cork grammar at work here. He might also reveal to us the secret of why “blá” may not mean flower. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – When speaking about the place of Micheal Collins’s demise, I find it useful to affect a mild hesitation. “Collins was, um, assassinated at Béal na, um, Blá.” This satisfies the advocates of each pronunciation. It also introduces a useful note of ambiguity as to whether his death was an assassination or a legitimate act of war.
Thus are nations healed. – Yours, etc,