The question of an interconnected electricity supply, between North and South Ireland, was one with a long, and fraught, history on the island.
First proposed in the late-1920s, an agreement was finally signed on the 5th of October 1967. Erskine Childers, Irish Minister for Transport and Power and Brian Faulkner, NI Minister for Commerce, had brokered a deal which represented perhaps the most significant example of cross-border co-operation in the 1960s.
It was hoped that interconnection would, "permit an overall reduction in generating plant capacity and in running standby [power]". Whilst the agreement was widely acclaimed, there were voices of opposition, as in this excerpt, with the speaker threatening that, "The awakening will be rude, tragic and violent for Ulster".