A small family syndicate from Tallaght and a family man from Westmeath have been to the National Lottery winners room to take home almost €1m between from the EuroMillions draws over Christmas.
The Westmeath man, who scooped €500,000 on the Christmas Day EuroMillions Plus draw, revealed he didn't realise his great fortune until 24 hours after the draw.
He said: “It was St. Stephen’s Night and I heard on the local news that the winning EuroMillions Plus ticket had been bought in Cards ‘n Things in Harbour Place Shopping Centre in Mullingar. That’s where I bought my Quick Pick ticket a few days before Christmas so I scanned it on the National Lottery App.
Staff at ‘Card’s ‘N Things’ newsagents in Co. Westmeath celebrate selling a €500,000 winning EuroMillions ticket.
"I couldn’t believe it when I realised I had won half a million euro. I am known as a joker in the family and it took some convincing them that I was not messing.”
The winner said he plans to use the money to help out close family and to pay off bills.
He said: “After that, I will take my time before I decide what to do. It’s a lovely amount of money to win and gives me and the family a lovely cushion. We are absolutely thrilled. We will have a lovely family celebration in the next week. This has certainly made our Christmas.”
Meanwhile, the winner from Tallaght revealed that a lull in a shop queue in the busy Dunnes Stores in Kilnamanagh led her to buy the EuroMillions ticket which landed her small family syndicate €489,376.
They matched 5 numbers, just one shy of scooping the mega EuroMillions jackpot of €102m for the draw on Friday, December 21.
The head of the syndicate said: “I was flying around getting my last few bits of shopping done before Christmas and picking up the turkey and ham and was aware it was my turn to buy the EuroMillions ticket for our small syndicate.
"The queues were huge in Dunnes so I decided to wait and get the ticket later on. But as I was about to leave the queue reduced to two so I ran up and got the ticket. It’s an amazing stroke of luck. If I had waited I wouldn’t be here in the Winner’s room now.”
The syndicate revealed they have no plans yet for their windfall as they are processing their amazing luck.
Their spokesperson added: “I haven’t been able to think of anything else all over the Christmas. I couldn’t even taste my Christmas dinner properly and it feels like my head is full of cotton wool. It’s like I’m dreaming.”
