Irish Examiner View: Sea links may become our lifeline after Brexit

Around 125,000 tonnes of Ireland's flour is imported mainly via Britain's land bridge. Picture; David Creedon / Anzenberger

Great events can pivot on tiny details. Operation Barbarossa, the unspeakably savage Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, launched in June, 1941, was, in part, repelled when Russia's bitter winter fell. 

The oils lubricating German tanks and trucks froze before the oils used in Russian vehicles. Local knowledge and assiduous preparation prevailed. Catastrophe was averted though the cost of doing that was, in today's terms, all but unimaginable.