EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you should know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #COUNTING DAY Counting of votes to determine who Ireland has chosen as its next president will get underway at 9am this morning with the first count result not expected until early evening and the final result coming possibly as late as tomorrow. Voter turnout was low, at around 50 per cent. Counting in the two referendums will get under way after the presidential count has finished.
2. #DART Rail services in Dublin will be disrupted for “days” to allow for repairs to the DART line between Grand Canal Dock and Sydney Parade following damage it sustained during the floods earlier this week. Commuters will be able to use their tickets on Dublin Bus.
3. #CIARAN JONES The funeral of the garda who died during the floods on Monday night will take place today. Ciaran Jones has been hailed as a hero after he helped motorists in the dangerous conditions at Ballyward Bridge in Co Wicklow. The 25-year-old was off-duty at the time. President Mary McAleese attended his removal last night.
4. #A MISTAKE Allowing Greece into the Eurozone in 2001 was a mistake, according to French president Nic0las Sarkozy who said in a TV interview that Greece was “not ready” at the time. Sarkozy was speaking to France 2 and outlined just how serious the situation is by saying: “If the euro had exploded on Wednesday night, all of Europe would have exploded,” the Guardian reports.
5. #IPHONE MANIA Apple aficionados in Ireland queued up outside the Three store on Grafton Street late last night in order to be among the first to get their hands on the new iPhone 4s which goes on sale in phone shops across the country today. The revolutionary smartphone has already been on sale in the US and UK for the past two weeks. Here’s a full guide to various Irish networks’ pricing plans.
6. #SINGLE PARENTS Ireland has one of the highest rates of children living in single-parent households in Europe, according to a survey by Eurostat. The survey reveals that one in four Irish children come from a single-parent home. The number of children living in two-parent households is one of the lowest on the continent, the survey also finds.
7. #ASPIRIN Two pills of aspirin a day could cut the risk of bowel cancer by almost two-thirds for those who are at the highest risk of one of the most common cancers, according to a study. Published today in the Lancet, the British-led research has been welcomed as powerful evidence of the benefits of aspirin, according to The Telegraph.
8. #HELLS ANGELS It is feared that a Hells Angels funeral taking place in California this weekend could get violent with two rival motorcycle gangs engaged in a deadly war that started following an argument over who could hang out at a Starbucks in the town of Santa Cruz. The Times (subscription required) reports that the Vagos crew tried to seize a coffee shop from the Angels and a bitter war, which has claimed the lives of three bikers, has ensued.
9. #PRESIDENTS What did James Cagney and Eamon de Valera have in common? Which Irish president had the best golf handicap of any head of state at the time? And which of our former presidents was described as the “handsomest head of state in western Europe”? We’ve been finding out 11 things you might not know about the eight men and women who have been president.
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