GOOD MORNING.

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

St Patrick’s Day in Washington

1. After two years of Covid scuppering the traditional White House visit by the Taoiseach on St Patrick’s Day, this year it went off without a hitch, but without much pizzazz.

US president Joe Biden placed the Good Friday Agreement at the centre of everything this week.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar thanked Biden for his support with Brexit, the leadership shown by the US with Ukraine, and promised a great trip next month when the US President comes to Ireland with “big crowds”.

Niall Horan

2. Singer Niall Horan has been told by US President Joe Biden that he is welcome back to the White House “anytime” after entertaining the crowds at this evening’s shamrock ceremony.

In a room full of political heavyweights, all were there to see Horan, whose new album ‘The Show’ is out soon.

Defence Forces

3. An atheist who was discriminated against by the Irish Defence Forces has written to the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin asking for an apology on behalf of the Department of Defence.

John Hamill, a former officer with Atheist Ireland, felt he was discriminated against after he applied to be a chaplain with the Defence Forces, without being of “monotheistic belief”.

Crime

4. Detectives investigating the alleged connections of a number of gardaí to organised crime are examining if information was provided to the Hutch gang by a garda ahead of a gangland murder.

It is understood that part of a probe focuses on concerns that alleged corrupt gardaí may have passed critical information to members of the crime group which then carried out the fatal shooting of a man in Dublin.

Finnish NATO accession

5. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ended months of diplomatically charged delays and asked parliament to quickly back Finland’s bid to join NATO.

A simultaneous decision by fellow holdout Hungary to schedule a Finnish ratification vote for 27 March means the US-led defence alliance will likely grow to 31 nations within a few months.

Gary Lineker

6. Gary Lineker will return to TV screens to present live coverage of the FA Cup quarter final between Manchester City and Burnley today.

It will mark the 62-year-old football pundit’s first appearance on the BBC since he was told to step back from hosting Match Of The Day in a row over impartiality.

ICC arrest warrant for Putin

7. US president Joe Biden has joined Ukraine and Britain in welcoming the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes.

Biden said Putin had “clearly committed war crimes” and the warrant, although not recognised in the US, was “justified” and made “a very strong point”.

Voices

8. Research scholar Ray Ó Foghlú writes that the best place to rebuild our native woodlands is from the remnants of ancient ones which still exist.

He says that recent trends in afforestation suggest a renewed interest amongst farmers in native woodland creation, which is positive in a country which has less than two per cent of its land mass in native woodland

“However, simply planting trees in green fields does not a woodland make and should not be the extent of our ambitions.”

The Explainer

9. As the cost-of-living crisis rumbles on, there are few people who have not felt the impact on their pockets.

‘Shrinkflation’ is the term applied to when products increase in price, but customer ends up paying more for the same or less. You could also end up paying more for a product of lower quality.

This week on The Explainer, Laura Byrne speaks to Edgar Morgenroth, professor of economics at DCU Business School, to delve into the subject more.