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The 9 at 9 Nine things to know before 9am, including: Ireland pledges aid to Syria, 110 technology jobs announced, and Iceland’s former PM on trial over financial crisis.

EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you should know with your morning coffee…

1. #SYRIA: Ireland is to make €500,000 available to humanitarian agencies working in Syria, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore has pledged.

The money will be spent on providing immediate relief to those affected by the fighting across the country, and will also be used to pre-position emergency supplies in case the situation deteriorates further. The UN estimates that about 7,500 people have died since the uprising started a year ago.

2. #JOBS: Some 110 technology jobs have been created in Galway and Dublin: cloud computing company SourceDogg.com is to create 80 jobs in Galway, in engineering, IT support and professional services roles, while data processing company Datalogic ADC will create 30 new jobs in Dublin.

3. #CRUMLIN: Staff at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, have issued an urgent call for funds for renovation – saying the facilities used to treat sick children are obsolete and “not fit for purpose”. The cancer ward at the hospital currently has no private rooms for terminally ill children and no private bathroom for patients or their families to use, the hospital said in a statement. Parents of critically ill heart patients have also reportedly been forced to sleep on corridors and wards.

4. #REFERENDUM:The Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has said that a “No” vote in the forthcoming referendum on the Fiscal Compact would damage Ireland’s access to the permanent EU bailout fund. Varadkar also insisted that it was not in the government’s interest to “overtly and publicly” link the ratification of the treaty to Ireland being given a deal to restructure the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes.

5. #BELFAST: A man and a woman, aged 24 and 27, have been arrested in connection with the murder of 31-year-old Christopher Macken in Belfast last week. PSNI investigators do not believe there was a sectarian motivation for the attack.

6. #BODY: The body of a man found off the Dublin coast yesterday is to undergo an post-mortem examination today. Gardaí are investigating whether the remains, discovered near Skerries yesterday, are those of a fisherman missing since January.

7. #ICELAND: The former Prime Minister of Iceland Geir Haarde will face trial today, accused of negligence in his handling of the country’s financial crisis and failing to prevent an economic meltdown. Haarde has dismissed the charges as “political persecution,” the BBC reports.

8. #NUCLEAR: US President Barack Obama will meet with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington today to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme, the Telegraph reports. Following an address by the US President to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby group yesterday, Netanyahu said he appreciated that Obama had “reiterated his position” that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, adding that “all options are on the table”.

9. #MONEYGALL: The most famous publican in the village of Moneygall, Ollie Hayes, has received an official invite from the White House to celebrate St Patrick’s Day with the first family of the United States of America. His nephew – and Barack Obama’s distant cousin – Henry Healy was also honoured with an invitation.

US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama drink Guinness beer as they meet with local residents at Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Ireland, the ancestral homeland of his great-great-great grandfather, Monday, 23 May, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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20 Comments
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    Mute Ruairi Dowdall
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:41 PM

    Portugal has 2000 isolation beds at the ready and dozens specialist teams ready to deal with an outbreak

    Ireland has……Advice

    173
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    Mute Rúraíocht
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:52 PM

    @Ruairi Dowdall: and a hotline that doesn’t work

    72
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    Mute Who cares?
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:58 PM

    @Ruairi Dowdall: we heard you the first time

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    Mute Paraic
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:59 PM

    @Ruairi Dowdall: The advice is: Don’t bother wearing a mask, it’ll be grand.

    21
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    Mute DERRY1973
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    Feb 28th 2020, 1:17 PM

    @Ruairi Dowdall: that’s nothing, Ireland organised it’s own storm for tomorrow to blow the corona virus out into the Atlantic.

    25
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    Mute Kevin Farrell
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    Feb 28th 2020, 1:18 PM

    @Ruairi Dowdall: don’t worry, it was reported earlier in the week that the Mater Hospital has 12 isolation beds, and that they’ll be brought on stream if needed! You couldn’t make it up!!!

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Feb 28th 2020, 4:28 PM

    @Ruairi Dowdall: Yea , like “ sticking a note on your front door “ lol

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    Mute Sequoia
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:23 PM

    Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop huffing glue.

    90
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    Mute John Byrne
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:31 PM

    @Sequoia: getting real tired of this now

    23
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    Mute John O'Neill
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:28 PM

    I’d say by mid next week buy as many stocks as you can, a lot of money to be made. All depends on these virus numbers slowing down by the end of the weekend !

    52
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    Mute John Black
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:41 PM

    @John O’Neill: or it could get worse as it’s spreads to other countries?
    Do you play roulette often?

    34
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    Mute Bob Frapples
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:43 PM

    @John O’Neill: Don’t try to catch a falling knife

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    Mute John O'Neill
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:50 PM

    @John Black: no new cases in the U.S in the last 32 hours, Italy press conference at 5pm, 85% of Starbucks back open In China. The numbers don’t sound bad to me.

    15
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    Mute John O'Neill
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:53 PM

    @Bob Frapples: infodemic or pandemic?

    15
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    Mute Looney Tunes
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    Feb 28th 2020, 12:59 PM

    @John O’Neill: on the money (: when this fecks off, which will over time, the only way is up for stocks

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    Mute cryptodon
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    Feb 28th 2020, 1:02 PM

    @Looney Tunes: literally cant go tits up

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    Mute Aidan
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    Feb 28th 2020, 1:03 PM

    @John O’Neill: maybe a few days longer, but yeah there will be a massive bounce back

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    Mute Shane Cormican
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    Feb 28th 2020, 1:35 PM

    @John Black: always bet on Black .. John Black

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    Mute barry sorensen
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    Feb 28th 2020, 1:40 PM

    @John O’Neill: What would you recommend? White stocks, black stocks, those little hidden ankle stocks, or full length knee stocks?

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    Mute Rocky Raccoon
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    Feb 28th 2020, 4:19 PM

    @barry sorensen: Index funds – they spread your investment over all the companies in whatever stock exchange you pick. Google “S&P 500 graph” and look at the last 30 years. It’s survived every global crisis and downturn over the last 60 odd years.

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    Mute Whoswho
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    Feb 28th 2020, 5:03 PM

    @Aidan: only fools buy on the way down

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    Mute barry sorensen
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    Feb 28th 2020, 7:48 PM

    @Rocky Raccoon: I was talking the piss

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    Mute anthony mcgowan
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    Feb 28th 2020, 1:47 PM

    Anyone know where I can buy stocks in a surgical mask company?

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    Mute Bitcoin Buddy II
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    Feb 28th 2020, 3:53 PM

    @anthony mcgowan: 3M

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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    Feb 28th 2020, 2:07 PM

    Bring back brexit the lesser of the two evils

    8
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