Béal na Bláth: The General belongs in the heart of all of us
The buildup of hundreds of cars in the small Cork village of Crookstown long before midday was an indication that this year's commemoration of the death of General Michael Collins was different.
There are not many occasions in Ireland's young history that would see a remote spot in the heart of Cork county on a Sunday afternoon resemble a county final or a high-profile concert, but The Big Fella can still draw the crowds 100 years after his untimely death in Béal na Bláth.
Dozens of men and women lined the streets to steward cars full of men, women, and children towards designated one-off parking fields in Crookstown, before a fleet of buses brought thousands to a spot about 1km away where Michael Collins was assassinated in 1922.
Those buses had the chattering of many a different accent, of young and old, Black Irish and people of colour, as people came from all over the country and even from abroad to pay their respects and see history in the making when the two main political parties of the past century put mutual suspicion behind them to honour the fallen general.
Modern Ireland had come a long way since August 22, 1922, and the evidence was overwhelming.
The kilometre-long walk to the spot where Michael Collins was ambushed provided an opportunity for the crowds — beyond the initially estimated 5,000 — to engage in a period of quiet reflection, and a sense of pride on how far the country has come in the 100 years since it seemed that hope for a peaceful future had been shattered by gunfire in Béal na Bláth.
For Betty Anderson from The Glen in Cork City, the occasion was one of extraordinary significance.
Betty has long made the Béal na Bláth commemoration an annual pilgrimage with her goddaughter, teacher Aisling O'Leary.
"To think of what Michael Collins achieved for this country before his death, you contemplate what more he could have achieved had he lived. This commemoration should be non-political because Michael Collins believed in one nation, one country, and one people."
She said:
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar were profoundly aware of the historical occasion, as were political supporters of both parties.
Even the interruption of boos and insults that greeted both men from a small but vocal protesting minority were drowned out by reactionary cheers from the vast majority in attendance.
Fine Gael supporters, ostensibly the "home team" in sporting parlance, sensed the need to shield both main speakers from the caustic barbs, and any differences they had with Fianna Fáil supporters evaporated as the crowd joined forces to greet each leader's soundbites with gusto.
Mr Martin used his unlikely platform to bolster the coming together of the traditional political rivals, while also castigating those who took up the gun in more modern times to advance political aims.
"When we look back over what has been achieved in the last century I have no doubt that Collins would see a country transformed — an Irish State which has proved to the world that it can achieve great things when it is free to shape its own destiny.
"There are those who claim in ever-more passionate speeches that Ireland has achieved nothing in 100 years — and that we are close to being some sort of failed state. This says more about their cynicism than it does about our country.
"There has been a lazy tendency to dismiss Irish politics as so-called ‘Civil War politics’. However, the truth is that after 1923, no party advocating a return to violence has ever won more than 4% of the vote. The parties who have led our governments since then have done so because they have worked to move beyond the civil war and to develop our country in the interests of all.
"We need to do more to confront the new revisionism of those who try to denigrate our country’s achievements and who try to claim legitimacy for violent campaigns waged in the face of the opposition of the Irish people.
"We have to give no quarter to their attempts to link themselves to the men and women who fought our revolution over a century ago," the Taoiseach said, with loud applause and cheers greeting each utterance.
It is perhaps the greatest tragedy of Collins' death that it deprived us of our best hope for reconciliation, Mr Martin lamented.
Mr Varadkar described General Michael Collins as the "prophet of freedom" for Ireland.
"For me, Collins was the great prophet of freedom who was killed before we reached the promised land. That was the great tragedy of Béal na Bláth, and the curse of the Civil War. By commemorating his death each year, we remember his sacrifice and make an act of faith in the Ireland he and the revolutionary generation wanted to achieve."
He harkened to the commemoration of 2010, when the late Fianna Fáil Finance Minister Brian Lenihan broke new ground by becoming the most high-profile figure from Fine Gael's traditional big rivals to address the attendees.
"In becoming the first Fianna Fáil Minister to speak here, he knew that he was performing a ‘public act of historical reconciliation’, to use his words.
"It was also an act of courage, typical of the man. As we all know, it was a terrible time in his life, as he did everything he could to try to save the economy, while at the same time receiving treatment for the cancer that was to end his life only 10 months later.
"His words here in 2010 still resonate today: ‘The spirit of Collins is the spirit of the nation’. It must ‘continue to inspire everyone in public life, irrespective of party or tradition," he said.
It took nearly 100 years, but the enmity and rancour of the traditional party bases have finally been put aside in the spirit of detente, according to the Tánaiste.
"Dear friends, colleagues, civil war politics ended a long time ago in Ireland, but it only ended in our Dáil when we formed the historic three-party coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in June 2020."
The grandniece of Michael Collins, Eleanor Moore, told those in attendance that the weekend had been "amazing for the family" of the general.
"On thinking about what to say here today from the family perspective, I came across of Thursday, August 24, 1922, - the headline was Heroic Death of Michael Collins.
"In a column, there was a message from the Irish Provisional Government which stated: “In every phase of the awakened activity of the Nation — constructive, administrative, executive, military — the personality of Michael Collins was vivid and impelling.
"He has been slain to our unutterable grief and loss — but he cannot die. He will live in the rule of the people, which he gave his great best to assert and confirm and which his colleagues undertake as a solemn charge to maintain."
"To me, this quote is borne out here today and still pertinent on the centenary of his death in the crowd of followers and in what both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have said here today," she said.
The warm August afternoon and standing room only as far as the eye could see took a toll on some attendees, but in a microcosm of what Ireland has become to many people — a land where community takes care of each other — a member of the Defence Forces wilted in the heat.
Taking a tumble as the Taoiseach spoke, he was immediately whisked away for treatment by his colleagues, and tended to by medical personnel on site.
Both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, as well as other political figures in attendance, went to check on the young soldier's condition after, where he was reported to be recovering and doing well.
Almost 100 years to the day after General Michael Collins was killed, his memory will never fade, as the annual commemoration of 2022 showed.
No longer the preserve of Fine Gael gatekeepers, in the words of Betty Anderson from The Glen, "the General belongs in the hearts of all of us".
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