The area is best known as the site of the ambush and death of the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins in 1922.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

[3] 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.

[2] 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.