Interesting one page article by Peter Dale from my gaming scrapbook, taken from a very old copy of Volume 10 Issue 11, November 1996 of Backtrack, a railway history magazine. I kept this page when handed a batch of old railway magazines a while back, as I thought it had interesting gaming scenario ideas for the future.
Based on engineering discussions and papers from 1886 to 1901, Peter Dale explores whether a rail tunnel could have been built linking Ireland to the rest of mainland Britain via Scotland or Wales.
The geology and the whole idea proved too difficult and expensive and was quietly forgotten long before WW1, the Easter Rising, the Irish Civil War and Irish Independence.
It may have proved yet another awkward or weak point to be guarded in the national defences. Perfect for some game scenarios of “What if?”
I’m surprised it didn’t crop up in some of the literature of invasion scares that were around in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain.
Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN on my occasional Sidetracked blog, 22 September 2018.
Sidetracked 
Funnily enough this argument has cropped up again with discussions about a bridge!
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Thanks Bickersgate Blog for the link, to the interesting modern news article with all the same engineering problems of Victorian times.
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Yup. Absolutely nothings changed.
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https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/business/companies/could-a-bridge-or-tunnel-one-day-link-scotland-with-ireland-1-4130353/amp
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