EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know by 9am.

1. #GARRET FITZGERALD: The death has been announced of the former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, who passed away at the Mater Hospital following a short illness. The former Fine Gael leader served two terms as Taoiseach in the Fine Gael-Labour coalitions in the 1980s: from July 1981 to February 1982; and from December 1982 to March 1987. He is survived by three children and ten grandchildren.

2. #ROYAL VISIT: The Queen is visiting the Irish National Stud in Kildare this morning. Here’s everything you need to know about traffic restrictions in Dublin and Kildare today.

3. #OBAMA VISIT: The US President Barack Obama will hold an outdoor rally at College Green in Dublin on Monday evening, Niall O’Dowd is reporting. The rally will be preceded by a free concert, which will kick off at 5pm. In his speech, which will last 15-20 minutes, he will address the issue of immigration reform. Meanwhile, Bono has described how he was once snubbed by Obama during a dinner with Condoleezza Rice, Hot Press reports. The U2 frontman said: “It was like I wasn’t there.”

4. #NCT: Three staff have been sacked as the inquiry into allegations of bribery widened, RTÉ reports.

5. #NO FAIR DEAL: Age Action has described as a “nightmare situation” news that funding allocated for this year to the Fair Deal nursing home scheme has run out already. In practice, this means no new applicants will be able to enter the scheme unless existing recipients die.

6. #RAPE TRIAL: A man has been found guilty of brutally raping a woman in public toilets in Cork. At one point during the trial, proceedings were delayed after Przemyslaw Jakubowski – who had a conviction for attempted rape in another country had a pot of boiling water thrown over him in Cloverhill prison, the Examiner reports.

7. #CRITICISED: The Examiner also reports that the Rape Crisis Network has expressed horror that a judge cited a woman’s profession as reason for his directing the jury to find a man accused of rape not guilty – saying that it could deter the organisation’s 170 staff and volunteers from bringing a case. Earlier this week, Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin said a 30-year delay by the woman in making her complaint was inexplicable, given that she was trained and worked in a profession which encouraged victims to make complaints. Meanwhile, in Britain, Justice Minister Ken Clarke has been criticised for appearing to suggest that only some violent rapes are “serious” – and that people convicted of date rape should not be regarded as serious offenders.

8. #STRAUSS-KAHN: Dominique Strauss-Khan has resigned from his position as head of the IMF, insisting he wants to concentrate on the fight to clear his name.

9. #SCHWARZENEGGER: Just when Arnold Schwarzenegger thought things couldn’t get any worse – CNN claims his youngest son with wife Maria Shriver was born the same week as his son with his lover and housekeeper, Mildred Baena.