Critical infrastructure: Irish gas and electricity supplies are highly vulnerable to attack

Storm Éowyn showed how precarious Ireland's infrastructure is. In an increasingly fraught period in world politics, Security Correspondent Cormac O'Keeffe examines the potential consequences of sabotage on our subsea connections

The island of Ireland has three subsea electricity interconnectors, all linking to Britain (see map below). This site in Youghal, Co Cork, is about to become the Irish landfall of the fourth, the Celtic Interconnector linking our electricity grid to the French network. Picture: Howard Crowdy

Recent dramatic headlines urging Irish people to stockpile survival kits to last for three days was just the latest bulletin from a world swirling with uncertainty and turmoil.

The emergency call from the European Commission in the last week of March, was not just to Irish people, as some headlines here suggested — but to people from all 27 member states.