GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.

Boston visit

1. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has used his first speech in the US to call for humanitarian ceasefire in Palestine.

Leo Varadkar begins a week-long visit stateside for the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations, which will include a meeting with US President Joe Biden on Friday and the traditional shamrock ceremony on Sunday.

Gaza aid shipment

2. A ship loaded with 200 tonnes of humanitarian aid bound for war-ravaged Gaza left Cyprus’s Larnaca port this morning, a spokeswoman for the NGO operating the vessel said.

“They have left,” Laura Lanuza from Spanish charity Open Arms told the AFP news agency. The ship embarked on the journey early this morning, the first such shipment along a maritime corridor from Cyprus aimed at carrying aid to desperate Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

House fire

3. An elderly woman has died following a house fire in Co Mayo. The fire occurred at a home in Kiltimagh yesterday afternoon. 

Gardaí and emergency services attended the scene.

Haiti

4. Haiti’s prime minister agreed late last night to step aside with armed gangs plunging his country into anarchy, as he accepted a regional push for a transition that sets the stage for international intervention.

Air quality

5. Older Irish people who use an open fire as the main means of heating their home are much more likely to have a respiratory disease, research has indicated.

The research also suggested that lighting an open fire in a centrally heated home – as many people do for its cosy ambience – could also pose a health risk.

Irish economy

6. Delays in addressing capacity constraints in housing and other infrastructure could push inflation upwards and damage competitiveness, the Central Bank has warned.

The Central Bank has published its new quarterly bulletin detailing the latest outlook for Ireland’s economy, which it expects to grow over the coming years while unemployment remains low and inflation slows.

Funerals

7. The State spent over €9 million contributing to funeral expenses for people who couldn’t afford it last year.

The figure is up from €6.6 million in 2022, with the number of successful claims rising year on year, figures released to The Journal by the Department of Social Protection show.

Reddit

8. Online platform Reddit is gearing up to imminently go public on the New York Stock Exchange and hopes to raise over $500 million when doing so, new filings show.

The platform, which describes itself as the ‘front page of the internet’, is an online forum and noticeboard website where communities gather to share creative posts or publish opinions on any given topic.

RIP

Charlie Bird, the former RTÉ journalist and charity campaigner, has died aged 74. 

The news was confirmed by RTÉ this morning. Bird, who retired from the broadcaster in 2012 as Chief News Correspondent, spent almost four decades reporting for RTÉ, having joined as a researcher in current affairs in 1974.