Woman who won ‘dream’ Mayo cottage in a raffle is named

The Dublin-based woman who won the weekend charity raffle for a holiday cottage in Co Mayo has agreed to go public to ensure there is no absence of transparency surrounding her good fortune.

Michele Hallahan, who works in the sustainability area, told The Irish Times that while she initially wanted to remain anonymous she had subsequently agreed to be identified over concerns that staying out of the limelight might make some people doubt the legitimacy of the competition.

Ms Hallahan secured her "dream home" - a 150-year-old cottage, on the Mayo side of the Ox Mountains, near Foxford - after an investment of just €50. "I bought five tickets a couple of weeks after reading about the cottage in The Irish Times earlier this summer but then I forgot about it completely," she said.

The postcard-pretty cottage was put up for raffle by the Canada-based Irish owners in June. They wanted to do something significant after surviving Covid-19 earlier this year.

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They initially thought the raffle might yield about  €250,000 but just short of €1 million was raised with the money set to be used to fund educational bursaries for frontline healthcare support staff.

Their decision to raise money for frontline healthcare workers, excluding doctor and nurses, sprang from a combination of their own recent experience of the virus, seeing friends and family around them affected by cancer, and a lifelong belief that support staff in hospitals do not get the recognition they deserve.

“I am definitely going to keep it, it is my dream home,” Ms Hallahan said. “I lived in the US for 20 years and always dreamed that I would own a cottage like this close to the Atlantic but this has come like a bolt out of the blue,” she continued.

She expressed the hope that she would be able to travel from her Dublin home to the cottage a couple of times a month and would also be able to stay there for extended periods. “Like most people now I am working remotely so I will be able to do my job from anywhere,” she said.

Her siblings can also look forward to getting keys to the new cottage and will be able to use it as a holiday home, as will her friends.

“It is just so brilliant, not only have I won but so much money was raised for charity and it is great so to see the health workers getting the recognition they deserve.”