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It’s not new. The most recent example was after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when energy prices around the world spiked.

The price of petrol and diesel, as well as home heating oil, became so unsustainable that the government had to step in, giving people and households once-off payments that lasted for well over two budget cycles.

Are we going to see the same again? It depends on how long the war lasts.

If it drags on, I think the Government will have little choice but to intervene to keep cars on the road and homes heated.

It will be very reluctant to do so, and you can understand why. These interventions have a huge impact on the Exchequer and limit the government's ability to spend money elsewhere.

There have been some dodgy military actions in my lifetime, but this one is up there with the worst of them.

Several longer analyses published over the course of last weekend described the path to war. Essentially, this was an Israeli project from the outset, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu somehow convinced Donald Trump to go along with it.

True to his fickle, dishonest and self-serving nature, Trump has essentially reversed what he promised when running for office—that he would not involve America in foreign interventions.

It appears Netanyahu, among other things, played to Trump's ego, which is always a reliable way of getting around him.

What is most disconcerting, however, is the absence of a clear war aim. One day Trump says he wants regime change. The next day he says he wants to remove any nuclear threat that Iran might possess in the future. The following day he talks about dismantling the country's military infrastructure.

How long is it going to last? That's anybody's guess. Earlier this week Trump suggested it could be over by the end of the week. At other times, depending on the time of day or the mood he is in, he suggests it won't end until there is complete annihilation and the regime has been changed. If that were to happen, we could be talking about trench warfare and a conflict that drags on for many months.

Unfortunately, this totally unnecessary and harmful war will affect millions of people, including the innocent victims already killed in Iran. Israel—shamelessly—has also attacked Lebanon and killed hundreds there on the pretext of targeting Hizbollah.

I'm not sure the American public are fully behind this war. One of the biggest problems for the Trump administration has been inflation and the cost of living. Trump boasted that he brought it down, but in many instances the reverse has been the case.

The fact that the Gulf of Hormuz has been effectively rendered redundant by the war has meant a significant shortfall in crude oil exports from the Middle East in recent days. That has had a direct impact on American fuel prices.

The price for a gallon there has risen to $3.48, a 17% increase over five days. If that continues, Republicans are going to be in trouble, particularly with midterm elections approaching. Significant hikes in the price of gas, as Americans call it, almost always hurt the party in power, especially in marginal seats.

Yet the Trump administration appears to have no clear strategy to deal with this. There simply does not appear to be an endgame.

Here at home, we have also had a debate about the propriety of the war. The government has said the conflict took place without an international mandate and without the mandate of Congress, but it has very carefully stopped short of directly condemning the United States.

Opposition parties here have all condemned the war, with Sinn Féin going so far as to suggest that Taoiseach Micheál Martin should boycott the Shamrock Ceremony in the White House. That would be an act of political hara-kiri.

It would amount to a clear gesture of hostility towards the United States, which remains a very important partner for Ireland, and would be the height of folly.

If Sinn Féin were to enter government after the next election, I suspect its leaders would take a more pragmatic approach and would realise that throwing the toys out of the pram might work for US Presidents but for few others.

President Catherine Connelly also entered the debate over the weekend with a statement to coincide with International Women's Day.

In doing so she followed the tradition of her Galway West predecessor, Michael D. Higgins. She did not hold back.

She did not explicitly name Israel or the United States, but it was obvious whom she was referring to.

She said the attacks were a deliberate assault on international law. “We must name them as such, without euphemism and without equivocation,” she said in a statement issued on Sunday.

“The catastrophic consequences of violating the UN Charter cannot be ignored. The violations of international law we are witnessing are shocking and numbing, but we cannot afford inaction.”

There is no doubt she stepped into political territory but the Government's response was interesting. It did not attempt to prevent her from making such comments but emphasised it alone sets foreign policy and speaks on behalf of the State. To me, that gives her license to continue where Michael D left off.

Harry McGee is political correspondent of the Irish Times.

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