Beal na Bláth

This Sunday will see David Puttnam give the oration at the annual Beal na Bláth commeration in west Cork. For those who have forgotten their history, it was at Beal Bláth that Michael Collins was ambushed and killed on the 22nd of August 1922, and in memory of his massive contribution to Irish history, an annual commeration and oration takes places there every year.

Michael Collins

In recent years, those who have made the oration have included Dr. Pat Wallace, Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan, with the Collins 22 Society maintaining transcripts of their orations which make for interesting reading. According to a 2006 Independent article, he lives primarily in Cork, but to be honest, I wouldn’t particularly know much about the man. However, some scouting about the net suggests he should be good.

He is currently Labour Lord in the House of Lords, and has a history in advertising before moving onto the film industry where he was involved as a Director-Producer in a number of quite successful productions such as Chariots of Fire and The Killing Fields and of course the The War of the Buttons. He is currently a Deputy Director of Channel 4, and was one of the main figures involved in drafting UK legislation on broadcasting, particularly as it related to public service broadcasting. At the end of last year, he gave a speech on this area to a BCI conference, which seems to have provoked an interesting debate.

Possibly more interesting however is his current role in the UK with regard to climate change, where he is chairman of a joint committee on Climate Change. Indeed, that committee under Puttnam came out strongly in the past week criticised a government proposed Climate Change bill as not going far enough. In addition, he also addressed the issue of the digital divide, and the resulting implications for equal opportunity for all in society.

There are a large number of issues which he may well address, and it looks like it should be a very interesting event. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it along myself, but if anyone out there can make it down for the 3pm oration and would be willing to write up a report on it, and take a few photos to let us know what went on, please drop us a line.