History and Politics
Linking Britain to Ireland by tunnel was first suggested in 1890 and again in 1897, with a British application for £15,000 towards the cost of carrying out borings and soundings in the North Channel to see if a tunnel between Ireland and Scotland was viable. The link would have been of immense commercial benefit, was significant strategically and would have meant faster transatlantic travel from Britain, via Galway and other Irish ports. Sixty years later Harford Hyde, Unionist MP for North Belfast, called for a tunnel to be built.
In 1994 the Channel Tunnel opened between Great Britain and France. Technical challenges of constructing a tunnel were overcome. However, the Channel Tunnel was delivered overbudget and predicted traffic levels have never materialised.
A tunnel project has been discussed several times in Dáil Éireann (the Irish Parliament). and in the British parliament.
Read more about this topic: Irish Sea Fixed Crossing
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