Taoiseach Micheál Martin has been claiming for days that surges in oil prices are the result of “price gouging”, rather than a massive illegal war being perpetrated against one of the world’s leading producers, and a key shipping lane now being closed.
Martin, displaying an inability to grasp simple principles of supply and demand, declared that:
Our oil is coming from the North Sea, and we don’t want any price gouging going on.
It may well come from the North Sea, but if oil producers foresee a shortage in production due to the US-Zionist assault on Iran, they’re going to hike prices. Vincent Jennings, CEO of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, spoke to The Journaland said:
The man [Martin] never worked behind a shop counter in his life. He hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about.
Fuels for Ireland CEO Kevin McPartland is also quoted, and claimed that some:
…[petrol station] forecourt operators and oil distributors are “actually losing money on the fuel that they’re selling currently”.
Oil prices surge under Trump’s ‘unconditional surrender’ demands
While we’d ordinarily be reluctant to trust what CEOs say, their explanation is a lot more plausible in this case than Martin’s. The report shows the reality of oil prices in Ireland, with the price per litre of diesel jumping by 26 cents at Top Oil in Birr, Co Offaly. They found prices were going up across the country.
Le Mondereport that Brent oil surged:
…nearly 30% for the week after US President Donald Trump said only the “unconditional surrender” of Iran would end the Middle East war. The main US contract West Texas Intermediate soared more than 12% to over $90 per barrel.
The price of Brent crude is a key indicator for how global oil prices will shift. As a result of the brutal Trump-Netanyahu atrocity spree in Iran, they have pushed the Iranians to shut the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly 20% of the world’s oil passes through this part of the oceans. Iran has attacked ships attempting to travel via this route.
It may also have targeted oil facilities around West Asia, something that would never have happened were it not for the expansionist aims of the world’s most violent nations, the US and so-called ‘Israel’. Trump, who was supposed to avoid starting new wars and rebuild the US economy, now says about oil prices: “if they rise, they rise”. He declares that his latest imperial adventure is his priority.
Death for Iranians, price hikes across the board for everyone else
Martin’s fantasies about the cause of oil price changes represent another instance of bending over backwards not to offend Trump by blaming his war for adverse consequences. The Irish government has refused to declare the war is illegal, even in the case of the Epstein class murdering over 150 girls aged 7 to 12 at a school in Minab, Iran. They have even sought to provide cover for it by focusing on the wrongdoing of the Iranian government.
Of course, in a world sadly still dependent on climate-wrecking fossil fuels, rising oil prices trigger price hikes on everything else too. That’s bad news for those already struggling to cope financially. In a poll conducted by Ipsos B&A poll In September 2025:
A total of 84% of people in Ireland are worried about the cost-of-living crisis, while fewer than one in seven believe the Government is doing enough to address it.
Now by backing Trump, they are not merely failing to address that crisis, they are helping to exacerbate it. It’s certainly a less severe burden to bear than the horrors being inflicted on innocent Iranians, but both show how the working class are punished for the criminal adventurism of the ruling class. The vast majority of us have infinitely more in common with the average Iranian than we do with the depraved thugs controlling our lives.
Rather than stand with those suffering, Micheál Martin backs the illegal war of a man accused of “orally raping a girl of 13–14 years old”, and the paedophile-sheltering, mass-raping genocidal settler-colony led by a wanted war criminal. Ireland’s Taoiseach has joined the Epstein class.
Featured image via TheGuardian
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