16 October 2019
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
There were joyous scenes in the National Lottery winners’ room today as a family from Co Cork made the trip to Dublin to claim a €500,000 EuroMillions Plus top prize which they won last Friday (11th October).
The winning ticket was purchased by the father of the family who is a lifetime National Lottery player at the Eason store in the Mahon Shopping Centre in Mahon, Co Cork on the day of the draw.
Describing how they found out about their lucky win, one of the winning family members said, “It was really weird. We were having a cup of tea in the kitchen the morning after the draw and my dad told me that he had a winning ticket in the EuroMillions draw from the previous night’s draw. And this was ever before we heard the news of the win in Mahon. He was just absolutely convinced. I checked my phone and low and behold there was a winning ticket sold in Cork and he was laughing away to himself, he just knew it was him. We popped off to our local shop shortly after to have the ticket checked but in truth, we probably didn’t even need to check it because he was so certain it was our ticket. There’s certainly some truth in the power of positive thinking,” she said.
So far this year, a total of €246 million has been won by EuroMillions players in Ireland including an incredible 24 winners of the €500,000 EuroMillion Plus top prize.
The winning dad who wishes to keep his family’s win private joked that as a lifetime National Lottery player, he was always convinced that he would win big one day. He says that their massive EuroMillions win will give him and his family a great deal of comfort for many years to come. He said: “I have always known that I’d end up at Lottery HQ collecting a big cheque. Today really is a dream come true for me and what better way to celebrate this win than to share it with my family. We certainly won’t be going mad buying any fancy cars or anything like that. The family are all at different stages of their own lives so having this prize to share equally among us will enable us to do our own thing and give us all the opportunity to make some nice changes in our lives,” he said.
Want to share that winning feeling? Play Lotto. Tonight’s Lotto jackpot is an estimated €4.5 million. Play in store, on the National Lottery App or online by 7:45pm by this evening for your chance to win.
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish Language. In total more than €5.4 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 32 years ago. In 2018 alone, more than €228 million was raised; the equivalent of €625,000 a day in support for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.
