Michael D Higgins to give oration at Béal na Bláth ceremony

President Michael D Higgins will give the oration at this year's Béal na Bláth commemoration in Co Cork to mark the death of Michael Collins in the Civil War 94 years ago.

President Higgins will become the first serving president to deliver the oration which takes place on the nearest Sunday to August 22nd, the date that Collins was killed in a republican ambush in 1922.

Dermot Collins, chairman of the Béal na Bláth annual commemoration committee, said organisers were honoured when the President accepted their invitation to give the oration on August 21st.

“President Higgins has a great knowledge of Irish history and is an original thinker so we are really looking forward to hearing what he has to say on Michael Collins and his legacy,” he said.

"And it's a particular honour for us that President Higgins is giving the oration this year – the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising when Collins was aide de camp to Joseph Plunkett in the GPO."

In 2012, Enda Kenny became the first serving Taoiseach to give the oration.

Mr Collins said it was particularly pleasing for the committee that the President accepted the invitation given his own family’s involvement in the War of Independence and the Civil War.

“His father and two of his uncles fought in the War of Independence,” he said.