Let’s dispense with lazy criticism of the bridge to Scotland idea and back a proper feasibility study into the possibility

It says something that the act of mocking the concept of a bridge between Great Britain and the island of Ireland actually predates any formal plans for such a bridge.
Thousands of people celebrate the opening of the Öresund bridge linking Denmark to Sweden 20 years ago. At five miles long, it is a fraction of the proposed 20-mile NI-Scotland bridge but there are such bridges, including Hong Kong-Zhuhai-MacauThousands of people celebrate the opening of the Öresund bridge linking Denmark to Sweden 20 years ago. At five miles long, it is a fraction of the proposed 20-mile NI-Scotland bridge but there are such bridges, including Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau
Thousands of people celebrate the opening of the Öresund bridge linking Denmark to Sweden 20 years ago. At five miles long, it is a fraction of the proposed 20-mile NI-Scotland bridge but there are such bridges, including Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau

Back in 1799 the notion of a bridge was used as satire to lampoon then Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger over the failure of the Union Bill.

Pitt, of course, had the last laugh with the passage into law the following year of the Act of Union.

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Almost a century passed before formal plans for such bridges came into being.

Shane Greer, who describes himself as an entrepreneur, investor and political commentator, is originally from Northern Ireland, now living in Washington DC. © Jessica YurinkoShane Greer, who describes himself as an entrepreneur, investor and political commentator, is originally from Northern Ireland, now living in Washington DC. © Jessica Yurinko
Shane Greer, who describes himself as an entrepreneur, investor and political commentator, is originally from Northern Ireland, now living in Washington DC. © Jessica Yurinko

At least five different potential routes have been proposed, debated, rejected, or otherwise left to wither on the vine since then. But just as technological progress advances endlessly to make the once fantastical seem achievable, so too do the impediments to such a bridge recede in the face of that progress.

Nevertheless, mockery of the very idea of a physical transport connection between Northern Ireland and Great Britain is indulged with every bit as much enthusiasm as those anti-Union publishers who set their sights on Pitt.

And like those publishers, their modern-day contemporaries remind us that the act of mocking is much easier than the act of manifesting that which they mock. In Pitt’s case, the Union, in our case a bridge.

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Yes, there are impediments. Some even verge on the comical, like reckoning with the million-plus tonnes of conventional and chemical weapons dumped in a submarine trench, Beaufort’s Dyke, last century.

One can almost imagine the originator of the weapons dumping scheme having one final meeting in a windowless Whitehall conference room before giving the green light.

Anyone foresee any potential problems with dumping all these munitions in the Irish Sea? Jenkins?”

“None sir. Seems like a spiffing idea.”

But let’s dispense with easy mockery and instead engage in thoughtful discussion.

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First, those with expertise in this area, like Wanda Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Warwick, do not see even such issues as the presence of wartime munitions in Beaufort’s Dyke as a factor rendering a bridge impossible.

She contends that it’s more a question of whether the cost of crossing the Dyke would render other bridge routes more cost-effective.

In other words, yes there are significant challenges, but we have the capability and the capacity to study them, work out the cost of overcoming them, and reach evidence-based decisions on viability.

Second, we need only look around us to witness marvels of infrastructure that stand as a testament to our remarkable ability to overcome astonishing engineering challenges.

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Relatively close to home, there’s the Öresund Bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark. Proposals for a tunnel or bridge crossing the Öresund strait date back almost as far as those for a bridge between Great Britain and Ireland. Twenty years on from Öresund’s completion, we are reminded of our capacity to surmount the once insurmountable.

Before anyone retorts that the Öresund Bridge spans a mere fraction of the distance the Irish Sea bridge would be required to cross, I would direct their attention to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, which at around 30 miles is about the distance as the crow flies between Belfast and Cookstown.

Distance, like depth and other environmental conditions, are just challenges to be met and overcome.

Thirdly, let us remember how transformative it is to be able to get easily from one place to another. Just as it is easy to forget how the ready availability of light at the flick of a switch has transformed human life, so too do we forget how different our lives would be without the M1, A24, or the Ballywhatever Road you take to get the groceries, visit family or commute to work.

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Gray and black roads like these are the arteries through which our lives flow. Casting all else aside, just consider how remarkable it would be to get into your car and drive to Glasgow, Manchester or London.

Fourthly, and perhaps most important of all, we need to dispense with that most tiresome of character traits, the desire to shoot others down and shoot their ideas down. Seats in the peanut gallery are cheap, but they add nothing but distraction to actual events being played out on the stage.

It is a tiresome trait that holds Northern Ireland back in so many ways. The notion that that will never work, that engaging in a new venture is too risky, that things are the way they are for a reason, that you should not rock the boat, are not worthy of a people whose capacity to overcome adversity is legend.

So let’s dispense with the lazy criticism and support a proper feasibility study. Let facts lead the decision-making process, not untested aspersions.

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None of this is to say that a bridge to Scotland is an infrastructure proposal of singular importance. As Ben Lowry pointed on these pages last week (‘The Boris bridge to Scotland plan is a nice dream but a distant one and a distraction from other priorities for unionism and infrastructure,’ see link below), if a bridge is to be built it will be decades before the first vehicle travels across it. Instead, it must be viewed as one substantial piece of a much more ambitious project to improve connectivity within and without Northern Ireland.

With that in mind, and as Robert Park argued here yesterday (‘A bridge to Scotland is not just a unionist umbilical project, but a strategic bridge to Europe and to the world, see link below), a bridge shouldn’t be thought of as a “‘unionist umbilical’ project,” but as part of a “massive, strategic investment that will return security to us on energy, connectivity, water and jobs.”

As a people who have spent decades now building metaphorical bridges between erstwhile detached communities in Northern Ireland, we can do better than trying without empirical merit to prevent the construction of physical ones.

• Shane Greer is an entrepreneur, investor and political commentator based in Washington DC

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