Shell has confirmed that tunnelling for the Corrib gas onshore pipeline in Co Mayo has started.
The specially-designed tunnel boring machine - called "Fionnuala" - installed the first concrete ring in the segment-lined tunnel under Sruwaddacon Bay yesterday.
Construction of the 4.9km tunnel is expected to last around 15 months.
In a statement, the company said tunnelling would stop over the Christmas holidays and resume in early January.
Some of the most striking images from around the world this week
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and independent TD Mick Wallace discuss the penalty points controversy
12:00 - 13:05
The Week in Politics
13:00 - 13:45
RTÉ Radio - News at One (Studio Webcam)
13:05 - 13:15
RTÉ News and Farming Weather
17:10 - 17:20
Nuacht RTÉ
Cruz, Paris, Romeo: which one is not a child of Beckham's?
Women's rights protesters have disrupted the opening of a giant pink doll's house in Berlin
Dublin councillors are divided over where the Molly Malone statue should be located in the future
High blood pressure is a silent risk factor for stroke and heart attack and should not go unchecked
Dr Kermit Gosnell's House of Horrors was well-known to the local community of West Philadelphia, blogs Richard Downes
Read a blog from Europe Editor Tony Connelly on depositors and the painful road to a banking union
A 'documentary novel' by Chris Brookes about war brides - women who married allied servicemen during World War II
A London taxi tour around the stories of the Irish in London, including the more recently-arrived
In 1963, Sean nós singer Darach Ó Cathain emigrated to Leeds with his family. This radio documentary follows their journey
