President Michael D. Higgins will become the first sitting head of state to deliver the Michael Collins oration at Béal na mBláth today.

Michael Collins was killed in a Republican ambush at the Cork site on the 22nd of August 1922.

Government Minister Leo Varadkar will give the oration at the annual Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith commemoration at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Chairman of the Béal na mBláth committee is Dermot Collins: "The importance and significance today is that for the first time ever - a historic occassion - that a presiding President will be in attendance and give the oration at Béal na mBláth."