An ambitious €350m (£300m) plan to connect electricity grids across the island of Ireland is heading for the high court after a challenge brought by campaigners claiming Northern Ireland was being used as a “whipping boy” to feed the republic’s energy-hungry datacentres.
An estimated 150 landowners representing 6,500 residents have called on the Northern Ireland minister for infrastructure, Liz Kimmins, to suspend the construction of more than 100 towering pylons in Armagh and Tyrone until a judicial review, due to start on 9 April, has been completed.
The legal challenge is the latest delay on the north-south interconnector, which was first conceived in 2006 as part of the post-peace collaboration between Belfast, Dublin and London.
Construction preparation on the pylon network has already begun but with planning permission due to expire in the autumn, a successful legal challenge could set back plans by years.
John Woods, the…
