The Middle East attracts an extraordinary amount of attention in the Western media. That has been particularly true over the past two weeks since Israel attacked Iran, Iran retaliated, and the US then bombed nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic last weekend. The intense media focus on the region has many reasons, but one is the memory of the 1970s. On two occasions in that troubled decade, oil supplies out of the region were cut, causing real and serious negative consequences across the world, including here in Ireland. In 1974 and 1979, oil supply disruptions drove two huge peaks in…

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