GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
Referendums
1. Both the Family and Care referendums have been comprehensively rejected by the electorate.
The Family amendment was rejected by 67.7% of voters, while the Care amendment was rejected by 73.9%.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar conceded defeat yesterday afternoon, saying the Government clearly “got it wrong”.
Celebrity scams
2. In our lead story this morning, Shane Raymond takes a look at how cryptocurrency scams are promoting hoax stories about Irish celebrities.
One scam recently came about after a hacking of an Indian politician’s Meta account.
The Journal understands the account was compromised by hackers who launched more than 50 ad campaigns.
Roderic O’Gorman
3. Back to the referendum news. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman does not need to resign over today’s results in the Family and Care referendums, despite calls from some opposition TDs.
The Government had campaigned for a Yes/Yes vote, but both referendums have been comprehensively rejected by the electorate.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News, Varadkar said: “I have full confidence in [O'Gorman], as have the Government.”
AG advice leak
4. The leaking of the Attorney General’s advice the night before polling day is “really frustrating”, according to Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin Castle today, the minister said it was a “a partial” leak of the Attorney General’s advice and was just one part “of a set of advices provided across the entire campaign”.
The Ditch published an article containing the leaked advice from Rossa Fanning on the proposed care and family amendments to O’Gorman on Thursday afternoon.
International coverage
5. International media outlets have been covering Ireland’s referendum results – and as expected much of the coverage has focused on the anticipated Care amendment result and in particular the retention of the ‘women in the home’ wording.
According to headlines abroad, the result was a failed attempt to remove “old-fashioned family values”.
Politico Europe’s analysis asserted that voters dismissed both changes because they were “maddeningly vague and threatening to property rights”.
Rallies
6. In other news, US President Joe Biden and presumptive White House challenger Donald Trump have traded barbs on the key topics of age and immigration, as they targeted the battleground state of Georgia.
Biden, hoping to ride the momentum from a feisty State of the Union speech on Thursday, went to the state’s capital of Atlanta to mobilise Black and Hispanic voters.
At his rally, Trump pretended to be a stuttering Biden, mocking his 81-year-old opponent.
Gaza aid
7. Two hundred tonnes of food aid were “ready” to be sent from Cyprus to Gaza by sea, a Spanish NGO has said, the first shipment along an EU-backed maritime corridor.
The good will sail from Cyprus along a new maritime corridor the EU Commission hopes will open this weekend.
Cork assault
8. A man has appeared in court in Cork charged in connection with a random street assault which led to the hospitalisation of a well-known Dublin businesswoman with both a dislocated and fractured ankle.
Conor Greaney (25) appeared before Cork District Court yesterday.
He took to the stand during a bail application and said that the assault on Dublin boutique owner Selina Regazzoli last Thursday morning outside the GPO in Cork arose following a case of mistaken identity.
Oscars
9. We are just hours away from the 96th Academy Awards, and Irish audiences will want to know where they can watch and who they should be looking out for.
The Oscars, which are held in Beverly Hills, will kick off at 4pm California time (11pm Irish time).
An edited version of the ceremony will screen on RTÉ Two and RTÉ Player at 9:35pm on 11 March.
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