The annual IRN conference took place yesterday and was addressed by our own Kevin Callinan. Here's a synopsised version of Kevin's speech as captured on Twitter, while the full story - Public service pay deal must address spending power and grade claims - is up on the website. A copy of Kevin's full presentation is available here.

The Irish Times initially reported the story as Government facing new pay pressures from public sector unions. The Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe was the next speaker on the IRN programme, prompting the Irish Times to change its headline to Donohoe warns public sector unions over pay demands. The Indo's coverage is headlined Public service unions to push for pay hike in wake of €35m deal for nurses.

The Government is set to ratify the Istanbul Convention today, which obliges governments to protect women from all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence.

Just a reminder that the ‘Raise the Roof’ housing and homelessness campaign will take place outside Cork City Hall at 5pm next Monday (11th March), while the Support Our Secretaries campaign public meeting will take place in the Imperial Hotel on Monday evening at 7pm. Details of both events are available here, and it's covered in the Cork Independent.

Today's front pages drift mostly into Brexit territory. Here's a guide to some of the best Irish #iwd2019 events taking place.

"On March 8th (International Women's Day) I search Twitter for people asking "When's International Men's Day" and tell them that it's November 19th. It's a Herculean task in the face of ignorance and the inability to google" - Richard Herring

And on this #iwd2019, spare a thought for UK comedian Richard Herring. It started earlier this week..seriously lads, have ye nothing better to do? On the plus side, Herring has already raised a few thousand quid in aid of Refuge, the domestic-violence charity. Last year he raised around €170,000 as people donated every time he tweeted a response.

Your Zen moment today comes from a triumvirate of phenomenal women. First up we have Eurythmics' Annie Lennox with soul legend Aretha Franklin from 1985, while Aretha sets down the marker in 1967 with Respect. I'll leave the last word with always phenomenal Beyoncé...Who run the world?

Pick your favourite or alert us to other great #iwd2019 tunes (we've thrown a few more into the survey from this eclectic mix of inspirational tunes) by taking our survey (go back to front page).

Have a phenomenal International Women's Day and a good weekend.