 In Cork city, Collins met with neutral IRA members Seán O'Hegarty and Florence O'Donoghue with a view to contacting Anti-Treaty IRA leaders Tom Barry and Tom Hales to propose a truce.The anti-Treaty side had called a major convocation of officers to Béal na Bláth, a remote crossroads, with ending the war on the agenda.De Valera was present there, however, Michel Hopkinson writes that 'there is no evidence that there was any prospect of a meeting between de Valera and Collins.