Posted online: Jan 11th, 2012

Documents released in the State Papers from 1981 have shown that the Irish Intelligence Service, G2, feared that the USSR would seize Rockall and turn it into a underwater ballistic missile bunker.
During the early 1980′s, nuclear attacks was greatly feared across Europe as the Cold War between the American/European Allies and the former USSR intensified. Many intelligence agencies believed that the USSR was looking to set-up a base somewhere in the Atlantic and both the Irish and British believed that Rockall was a possible site.
Rockall is an inhospitable and inhabitable rocky outcrop located 250 miles of the north west Donegal coast. It has long been disputed between the four nations of Ireland, the UK, Denmark and Iceland.
The continental shelf around the rock is rich in fishing grounds and in recent years research has also found that it it rich in oil and gas buried underneath the shelf itself. Whoever would control the rock would also have the rights to the oil and gas, and also the fishing rights.
It is believed that during the Cold War, British, American and Soviet submarines were constantly patrolling the area around Rockall in case any of the three nations would try to take control of the rock.
Rockall has been a constant source of territorial disputes with the Republic of Ireland, Britain, Iceland and the Faroe Islands all making claims in the past.