LAST UPDATE | 11 Mar 2025

GOOD MORNING.

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

Ireland-US relations

1. In our main story this morning, Lauren Boland reports on what The Journal‘s readers believe Taoiseach Micheál Martin should say to US President Donald Trump when they meet in the White House tomorrow. 

One reader said the Fianna Fáil leader should “avoid politics” and concentrate on the links between Ireland and the US, while another reader said: “Keep his visit as short as possible. Don’t mention tariffs, Gaza or his hair.”

Peace talks

2. Ukraine is set to present the United States with a plan for a partial ceasefire with Russia as high-level peace talks begin in Saudi Arabia. 

The meeting between Ukrainian and US officials will be the most senior since a disastrous White House visit last month when US President Donald Trump berated Kyiv’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for purported ingratitude.

Drone attack

3. Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry said air defences shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over ten Russian regions overnight.

At least one person was killed and three more wounded in the southern suburbs of Moscow, with 91 drones shot down over the region.

St Patrick’s Day

4. Returning to the Taoiseach, our Political Correspondent Jane Matthews reports from Texas that an interview at the South by Southwest festival last night saw the Taoiseach squirm when asked what his chicken fillet roll order is, but he kept his cool when tricky questions about US-Irish trade were put to him.

Industrial action

5. The Psychiatric Nurses Association has given notice to the HSE of the commencement of industrial action by its members from 26 March.

South Anne Street

6. A seventh man has been charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of Quham Babatunde in Dublin last month.

Third level education

7. There was an 8.5% increase in the number of CAO applications, going from 76,899 in 2024 to 83,424 this year – with health, business and arts courses among the most popular choices.

North Sea

8. Fires aboard a cargo ship and a tanker which collided in the North Sea off the East Yorkshire coast have continued to burn overnight, with a search for a missing crew member from the cargo ship called off last night. 

Gaeltacht housing

9. Members of Gaeltacht community groups, language activists and students gathered outside a number of Government offices yesterday to protest the ongoing housing crisis that has caused depopulation in a number of Gaeltacht regions.