EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the stories you need to know as you wake up.

1. #DÁIL OVER: Taoiseach Enda Kenny will travel to Áras an Uachtaráin today to ask President Michael D Higgins to dissolve the 31st Dáil. The general election is expected to be held on Friday, 26 February.

2. #KENNETH O’BRIEN: The funeral mass of Kenneth O’Brien will take place in St Matthew’s Church in Ballyfermot Upper today. The dismembered remains of the 33-year-old father of one were found dumped in the Grand Canal just over two weeks ago.

3. #WET WET WET: Last month was the wettest January at Dublin Airport since 1948, according to Met Éireann.

4. #RETURN OF KINGS: A controversial “neo-masculinist” group, Return of Kings, is planning a meeting in Naas, Kildare. Local Sinn Féin councillor Réada Cronin said the group should not be welcomed to Ireland. She described it as “pro-rape, misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic”.

5. #STRIKE: A work stoppage is taking place at the country’s 14 Institutes of Technology today in protest over funding cuts in the sector, RTÉ reports.

6. #MANCHESTER: DNA profiling has been used to catch a rapist 32 years after an attack in Manchester.

7. #WALES: The discovery of the body of a man in North Wales may be connected to the murder of a woman and her two children near Leeds, according to Sky News.

8. #MURDER TRIAL: Seán Guerin SC received €101,726 for prosecuting in Graham Dwyer’s case last year, the Irish Times reports.

9. #SSSSHHH: Pope Francis has told priests and nuns to stop gossiping and to ‘bite their tongues’.