Irish Examiner view: World peace is disappearing quickly over the event horizon

All eyes are on Iran’s retaliatory measures against Israel

Iranian missiles being intercepted over the skies of Tel Aviv. Picture: AP

It is a mark of just how quickly the world changes that, as the Irish Examiner went onto the presses on Thursday night, carrying warning stories that Iran was in breach of its nuclear obligations for the first time in two decades, Israel launched devastating attacks on its deadliest enemy.

And as we went to press on Friday night, the world was assessing Iran’s retaliatory measures.

Israel’s provocative strikes, which targeted Iranian enrichment facilities and Tehran’s military commanders, carry strategic objectives which go beyond the tactical advantages identified by Israel.

It has undermined any attempts to revive a nuclear agreement, talks about which were scheduled to recommence in Oman on Sunday.

Iran’s initial response appears to have struck at the Israeli cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Other retaliation, including from Tehran’s proxies, the Houthis of Yemen, is likely. 

Attacks on bases in the Gulf, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea are all plausible. 

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates may be dragged back into direct conflict with Yemen.

The conflagration may spread to other fragile states such as Syria and lead to a rapid deterioration in a region already divided by the Gaza crisis.

The warning signs have been there for all to see. There was the critical report from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency; the US running their embassies down to essential staff only, Israeli hospitals being placed on war standby.

Now, around the world, Israeli embassies and consular services have been closed, with no timeline established for their reopening. 

Its citizens have been urged to stay alert and not display Jewish symbols in public places.

Meanwhile, Irish citizens are being advised not to travel to Israel, a prohibition which is already in place for Iran.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attack by more than 200 jets as a “targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”, and said it will continue for “as many days as it takes to remove this threat”.

While Friday’s raids were focused on six cities, including Tehran, it is the three locations of Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow which are at the hearts of Iran’s nuclear programme where raw uranium is enriched to weapons grade material.

Fordow is the most difficult target, with its facilities located in the heart of a mountain. Explosions were heard there on Friday evening.

US president Donald Trump warned that Iran must come to the nuclear negotiating table and make a deal “with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal”.

However, the danger for the Israeli leadership is that when Operation Rising Lion is over, Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan may be capable of being repaired in a matter of months.

All that Mr Netanyahu will have achieved is a short delay, a temporary roadblock, on Iran’s progress towards an atomic arsenal.

This implies a prolonged campaign. 

Just as Mr Netanyahu has pledged to eradicate the involvement of Hamas in the affairs of Gaza — a war aim increasingly acknowledged by many of the countries attempting to broker a settlement and recognition of Palestine — so the dismantling of Iran’s predominantly secret 20-year programme will be another red line.

The attack on Iran rewrites the agenda for the three day G7 leaders’ summit which starts in the Rockies of Kananaskis, Alberta, on Sunday.

Hopes for international peace are further away today than they were on Friday. 

By the middle of next week, they may have disappeared far beyond the event horizon.

The enduring legacy of Cork Opera House

Every great city needs its own stately pleasure dome where dreams can be enjoyed, and life- replenishing interests and leisure indulged.

In Cork, that role has been fulfilled by the Opera House, whose 170-year contribution to the gaiety of the nation we mark in our Weekend magazine this morning. Corkonians have been lucky to have it, along with the Everyman Theatre which opened at Easter 1897.

Cork Opera House is celebrating all year, and so it should given its rich cultural contribution to the region and beyond, and the platform it has provided to local, national, and international talent.

The Opera House has always been a broad church. When its original iteration as The Athenaeum opened in 1855, it was for the “promotion of science, literature, and the fine arts, and the diffusion of architectural knowledge”.

Tastes change. It was renamed The Munster Hall before becoming the Opera House.

While on its present site it survived the Burning of Cork by British forces in 1920, it finally succumbed to the flames in its centenary year of 1955 during a pantomime rehearsal.

Cork Opera House in 1955 after a fire took hold during a pantomime rehearsal.

Even in its death throes, thousands turned out to watch the performance with gardaí called in to control the crowds.

The new Opera House rose from the ashes and as we enjoy its contemporary offerings, we can pay tribute to the shades of the past who were drawn to entertain us — Harry Lauder, Charles Dickens, the D’Oyly Carte opera company with their famous production of HMS Pinafore, Sarah Bernhardt, Ernest Shackleton, Jack Doyle — The Gorgeous Gael — Ella Fitzgerald, and, to bring it right up to date, Cillian Murphy. Thank you, Opera House, and all who have graced it.

Size isn’t everything when you’re on the road

There are many reasons why buying an SUV might be considered a contentious purchase.

Their weight and consequential impact on road surfaces is one.

Fuel consumption could be another in an era where it’s widely recognised that reducing carbon gases is a desirable objective for the good of society.

Then there’s the amount of space they can take up, particularly in car parks which were designed at the end of the last century.

Or the visual obstruction they present when a driver is attempting to assess whether to overtake.

If none of this cuts any ice with Irish motorists, and all the purchasing evidence suggests that it doesn’t, then what about considering a comprehensive report which concludes that the relentlessly rising bonnet height of new cars is a “clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children”.

The report, by lobbyists Transport & Environment (T&E), said the average bonnet height of new cars in Europe rose from 77cm in 2010 to 84cm last year.

A Belgian study of 300,000 casualties concluded that a 10cm increase from 80cm to 90cm raised the risk of death in a crash by 27% for pedestrians and cyclists. 

Children were substantially more likely to be killed as pedestrians in collisions than adults.

T&E also commissioned Loughborough University’s school of design to test the visibility of children from high-fronted cars. 

The driver of a Ram TRX was unable to see children aged up to nine who were standing directly in front, while a Land Rover Defender driver could not see children aged up to four and a half.

The driver of a Ram TRX was unable to see children aged up to nine who were standing directly in front, while a Land Rover Defender driver could not see children aged up to four and a half.

In collisions with pedestrians, high-bonneted vehicles are more likely to strike vital core organs in the bodies of adults and the heads of children. Lower bonnets tend to hit legs.

In Europe, there is no legal limit to bonnet height, and researchers argue that one should be introduced by 2035 and set no higher than 85cm.

The campaign against SUVs shows no sign of abating.

Paris and Lyon in France, and Aachen in Germany, charge bigger cars more to park.

In Britain, Cardiff, Bristol, Oxford, and Haringey are considering similar measures and last week the London Assembly called for limits on bonnet height.

The International Energy Agency reported record global SUV sales in 2024 and record SUV CO2 emissions of 1bn tonnes. 

If SUVs were a country, they would rank as the fifth most polluting in the world, the IEA said.

In Ireland, as many SUVs, which have their design inspiration in rugged terrain vehicles, are sold to urban and city dwellers as to people who live in rural locations. 

In other words, it is often a style choice.

Like deliveries by drone and the establishment of large power-hungry and water-hungry data centres, it is a commercial development whose consequences have not been fully thought through.