Great Island gets power boost from Lotto

There were champagne and chocolates for all customers of a New Ross supermarket yesterday after it sold one of the biggest winning Lotto tickets yet.

A syndicate of four employees at the ESB power station at Great Island bought the £6 ticket at Caulfield's SuperValu in Irishtown on Tuesday. They learned on Wednesday night of their £4.3 million win.

One of the group, Mr Larry Ryan from New Ross, who is married with a grown-up family, said the news had yet to sink in. "I have no immediate plans. I'll just try to sit tight and soak it up and see what happens from there."

The news led to a hectic morning for staff at Caulfield's, as a stream of hopeful punters called to check if they had the winning numbers.

"The National Lottery told us early this morning we had sold the winning ticket and a lot of people called as word spread," said the manager of the store, Mr Martin Sinnott.

"As the morning went on people realised it wasn't them but they're very happy it was won in the area. Two of the four syndicate members are regular customers who have been coming in for years." It was the first time the supermarket had sold a winning ticket, he said.

Mr Ryan told RTE he learned of the win from a fellow syndicate member on Wednesday. "He came barging in at twenty past eight. I had forgotten about the numbers - I was looking at Sky News or something like that. But I can tell you it was fairly hectic after that."

The win was the second biggest this year and the seventh highest jackpot since the Lotto was established in 1988.