Shadows to 'trace' Michael Collins' final journey in new feature at Béal na Bláth

Michael Collins was killed by anti-treaty republicans in an ambush at Béal na Bláth in Co Cork. Picture: Central Press/Getty Images 

His death cast a shadow over Irish politics for a century. Now shadows are set to play a key role in how he is remembered.

A sun alignment feature has been built into the restored monument at Béal na Bláth, where Michael Collins was shot and killed 100 years ago this weekend. 

It allows shadows to “trace” his final journey and fall on the spot where he died, at the exact time the fatal shot rang out in August 1922.

The unique feature is one of several deeply symbolic elements incorporated into the refurbished Collins monument which will be officially unveiled at the ambush site during the state’s centenary commemoration on Sunday.

Giulia Vallone, a senior architect with Cork County Council, is a key figure in the team which designed and restored the monument. She said everyone involved wanted to create something special.

Michael Collins in London for the treaty negotiations between representatives of Sinn Fein and the British government which resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

“The scheme was designed and developed by experts in archaeological and memorial historic landscapes in the hope of restoring the authenticity of the historical landscape,” she said.

“We wanted to give visitors to the site a more broad interpretation of the entire site, to make sure they could see the valley, and not just the part of the road where Michael Collins was shot, and really embrace the heritage value of the site.

“We really wanted to make sure that it was done well to make sure that the site can be given to future generations much as it was a century ago.” 

Ms Vallone and her county council team have spent months working on the scheme, in a partnership with a number of Government departments; the Department of An Taoiseach, the Department of Defence, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

She was the project designer and leader, and worked with her colleagues in the council’s capital projects implementation unit to a design code which was commissioned from Dr Finola O’Kane, an historic landscapes architect, and was built with the technical support of a design team led by Scott Tallon Walker Architects.

It involved an historical analysis of the battlefield and ambush area, and drew from an historic landscape assessment to reshape the area around the ambush site as it was in August 1922.

Michael Collins also had the nickname 'The Big Fellow' and was known as 'the man who won the war'. Picture: Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

While the physical work included a narrowing of the road, resurfacing, the installation of additional parking spaces, information maps and guides to make the area more visitor-friendly, Ms Vallone said it is also deep in symbolism.

The monument features a new stone wall, in tribute to Collins’s life, with the names of the West Cork towns he passed through in the hours before his death engraved on the ramp below. 

Notches in the wall allow the sun to cast a shadow on the town names at the time of the day on August 22 that Collins and his convoy would have passed through.

And at 7.30pm on August 22, the sun will cast a shadow on the point on the ground where Collins fell, fatally wounded.

The ramp turns sharply at this point, to symbolise the turn in Irish history caused by Collins’ death.

The plinth has also been covered with a metal skin that matches the colour of Collins’s touring car.