LAST UPDATE | 20 Dec 2024

GOOD MORNING. HERE’S everything you need to know as another day gets underway.

Sinn Féin leadership

1. Mary Lou McDonald has said there are “multiple people” capable of leading Sinn Féin as she rules out a presidential bid next year. 

Christmas message

2. The President has criticised the Israeli response in Gaza to Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack as having “transcended all of the boundaries of humanitarian law” in his annual, and final, Christmas address.

Cashflow

3. The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly rejected a Republican-led funding bill aimed at averting a government shutdown, with federal agencies due to run out of cash on Friday night and cease operations starting this weekend.

Gisele Pelicot

4. French President Emmanuel Macron has thanked Gisele Pelicot for her bravery amid her husband’s sentencing yesterday.

ESRI report

5. Lone parents, households with children, single working-age adults and renters are the groups most likely to have an income that does not meet their basic expenditure needs, a new report by the ESRI shows.

Kyran Durnin

6. Gardaí have released new photographs of schoolboy Kyran Durnin as part of a renewed appeal for information in their investigation into his disappearance and murder.

Irish Book Awards

7. Heart, Be Peace by Donal Ryan, the award-winning author and native to Co Tipperary, has been crowned An Post Irish Book of The Year.

Dublin Airport

8. Dublin Airport is expecting to have its busiest day of the Christmas season today.

Slow Down Day

9. Simon Harris has urged road users to be extra cautious this Christmas, after a year of tragedies on Irish roads.