19 August 2012 Last updated at 10:57 ET

Enda Kenny addresses Michael Collins memorial

Michael Collins died in an ambush in County Cork on 22 August 1922

Enda Kenny has become the first serving Taoiseach to address an annual commemoration of the death of Irish republican leader Michael Collins.

The ceremony on Sunday comes ahead of the 90th anniversary of Collins' death in an ambush during the Irish Civil War at Béal na mBláth in County Cork.

Mr Kenny delivered a keynote address and is laid one of four wreaths at a monument on the site.

The Irish army also fired an artillery salute in honour of their first general.

An armoured Rolls Royce, which was part of the convoy he was travelling in and used to bring his body to hospital, returned to the site for the first time in 90 years.

Michael Collins played a central role in co-ordinating IRA forces in the fight against the British during the Irish War of Independence.

He was part of the Sinn Fein delegation that negotiated the treaty leading to the foundation of the Irish Free State.

Collins fell victim to anti-treaty forces in the subsequent Civil War.

Mr Kenny's Fine Gael party has its roots in the Michael Collins faction.