I think Ireland must have been one of the very last places in Europe to get natural gas. The first supply came from Kinsale Head off the Coast of Cork in 1971 and it was only rolled out nationally very gradually, starting in Cork City.
Supplies in Dublin were only converted over to natural gas in the 1980s and most of the country didn't have natural gas at all.
Northern Ireland only got natural gas in the 1990s and into the 2000s. They had 'town gas' supplies, but when they were shut down they weren't replaced. There was a gap in service for several decades in many areas.
A state-owned corporation called Bord Gais Eireann (BGE) operates the network and is the dominant supplier in Ireland. It gradually purchased the local gas companies one-by-one as the went into liquidation in the 1970s and 80s. It is also very dominant in Northern Ireland through a subsiduary called Firmus Energy.
We've now got an interconnector to the UK with a spur to the Isle of Mann this is our sole connection to the European grid.
The Cork (Kinsale Head) field has almost run out. Although, there was a fairly significant discovery of gas off the west coast. However, the entire project's turning into a huge controversy as locals are protesting over the routing of gas pipes through their land. They want the gas refined off shore! There are also a lot of protesters who are angry about the way that Shell and other companies were given production rights.
They're also putting in a Liquified Natural Gas terminal near Limerick on the Shannon Estuary.
Energy supply's always a bit tricky when you're a relatively far flung island!!
We're still have no UK-Ireland electrical interconnection, other than a small-scale connection into Northern Ireland. So, effectively we're pretty much isolated from the European network.
