While tallies for this weekend's referendum are flying in across the country, one bat was flying across the Limerick count centre.

While dogs paid a visit to polling stations yesterday, a winged creature entered a counting station in Limerick today.

The bat was discovered behind a door at the Limerick Racecourse as counting staff were opening 288 ballot boxes and sorting through votes. 

He was christened “Count Ref-ula" by staff in the centre to mark the count for the referendums on family and care. 

Counting staff member Laurence Callaghan put the bat inside two cups help together and brought it outside. 

Over 145,000 (145,676) people were eligible to vote across Limerick City and County. 

The turnout in Limerick City was 43.2% and 42.9% in Limerick County. 

Seven boxes, containing 3,500 votes, from Tipperary, were included in the Limerick City vote due to recent electoral boundary changes. 

Reports so far suggest the Limerick electorate have voted against both referendums, similar to the rest of the country today. 

Ballots are being opened on a consistency basis at various centres around the country before being fed into the central results centre in Dublin Castle. 

Counting is underway in the Family amendment before the Care amendment with results likely this afternoon and into the evening. 

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan earlier today argued there was still a long way to go, but conceded the “case [the Government] presented didn’t win”. 

Keep up-to-date with the results as they come in with Newstalk.com's referendum widget at the top of the homepage 

Reporting by David Raleigh