Britain and France agree to a Channel Tunnel

Will a tunnel under the Irish Sea follow?

Paris, 12 March 1919 - A tunnel is to be built to join England and France.

The British and French Governments have agreed in principle to the idea and what is required next is a consideration of the way in which the project might take shape.

This will be a task for a commission in Paris that is currently engaged in various communications challenges across the world; it also considering schemes for tunnels under the Bosphorus and the Straits of Gibraltar, which would link Europe with Asia and Africa respectively.

Welcoming the development, the Irish Times has suggested that a Channel tunnel would not only bring commercial and military advantages, it would also ‘perpetuate the friendship between England and France. The terror of the Dover-Calais route will disappear, and a trip from London to Paris will no longer be looked upon as ‘going abroad’; Paris will be almost as accessible as Manchester.’

Given the prospect of transatlantic flight and the opportunities that exist for establishing Ireland as a first port of call for American aviators, the Irish Times believes that the advantages of a tunnel connecting Ireland to England would likewise be immense and would stimulate a bond between the two countries ‘much stronger than the bond of Union’.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]