Béal na Bláth

Name

The original version of the name has become obscured with the passage of time. The Placenames Database of Ireland gives the official spelling as Béal na Blá, with the alternative Béal na Bláth considered not to be supported by the linguistic evidence. The two anglicisations are 'Bealnabla' and 'Bealnablath'. Béal means "mouth/opening/approach". The meaning of blá in this placename has been asserted by academic authorities to mean "pasture-land", "good land", "green" or "lawn", while bláth can mean "blossom" or "buttermilk". Béal na Blá would therefore mean "the entrance to the good land", most likely referring to an area of land adjacent to the nearby River Bride.

The spelling Béal na mBláth (meaning "mouth of the flowers") is commonly used, but does not fit with the pronunciation used by the last native Irish-language speakers in the area (who survived until the 1940s), nor does it accord with the historical record. Another suggested reconstruction of the original name is Béal Átha na Bláiche, meaning "mouth of the ford of the buttermilk", by analogy to a similar placename in County Limerick.

Michael Collins

On 22 August 1922, during the Irish Civil War, Michael Collins, Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army, was killed in an ambush near Béal na Bláth by anti-treaty IRA forces while travelling in convoy from Bandon. The ambush was planned in a farmhouse in the village close to The Diamond Bar. Commemorations are held on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of his death. A memorial cross (coordinates ) stands 1 km south of the village near the site of the shooting in the townland of Glannarogue (), on a local road which was a dirt road when Collins was shot. It does not mark the actual spot where Collins fell, which was further south and on the left-hand side of the road heading north.

References

References

1. "Béal na Blá/Bealnablath".
2. Marian O'Flaherty, [https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0820/1316836-beal-na-blath-placename/ 'What's in a name: Béal na Blá, Béal na Bláth or Gleann na Ruaige?]. RTÉ News, 20 August 2022, retrieved 20 August 2022
3. Ó hÚrdail, Roibeárd. (1999). "The Placename Béal na Blá". Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society.
4. Hopkinson, Michael. ''Green Against Green: the Irish civil war'', 1988, p. 177.
5. Damian Shiels and Nial Murray, [https://www.rte.ie/history/michael-collins/2022/0815/1315786-the-archaeology-of-an-ambush-surviving-traces-of-beal-na-bla/ 'The Archaeology of an Ambush: Surviving Traces of Béal na Blá, 22 August 1922']. RTÉ, 19 August 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2025
6. Edward O’Mahony, [http://www.generalmichaelcollins.com/life-times/beal-na-mblath/ambush-2/ 'The Ambush at Béal na mBláth']. Collins 22 Society, 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2025