Ferry Travel to Ireland
Ireland has major ports in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Rosslare, Derry and Waterford. Smaller ports exist in Arklow, Ballina, Drogheda, Dundalk, Dún Laoghaire, Foynes, Galway, Larne, Limerick, New Ross, Sligo, Warrenpoint and Wicklow. Ports in the Republic handle 3.6 million travellers crossing the sea between Ireland and Great Britain each year. The vast majority of heavy goods trade is done by sea. Ports in Northern Ireland handle 10 megatons (11 million short tons) of goods trade with Britain annually, while ports in the Republic of Ireland handle 7.6 Mt (8.4 million short tons).
Ferry connections between Ireland and Great Britain via the Irish Sea include routes from Dublin to Holyhead, Birkenhead, and Douglas, Isle of Man, Belfast to Stranraer, Birkenhead and Douglas, Isle of Man, Larne to Cairnryan and Troon, Cork to Swansea and Rosslare to Fishguard and Pembroke.
There are also ferry connections to France, from Rosslare to Roscoff and Cherbourg, and also from Cork to Roscoff.
Several (mainly hypothetical) plans to build an "Irish Sea tunnel" have been proposed. The first serious proposal was made in 1897, which was for a tunnel between Ireland and Scotland crossing the North Channel. Most recently, in 2004, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland proposed the "Tusker Tunnel" between the ports of Rosslare and Fishguard. In 1997 a British engineering firm, Symonds, proposed a rail tunnel from Dublin to Holyhead. Either of the two most recent proposals, at 80 km (50 mi), would be by far the longest tunnel in the world and would cost an estimated €20bn.
