LOTTO MILLIONAIRE postman Pat Broderick said he was “always confident of winning” and had played the same numbers every week. “I said some day they might come up and they did,” the Co Cork postman said as he delivered letters yesterday.
Mr Broderick, who yesterday confirmed he had won €7 million in the Lotto, returned to work yesterday because he didn’t want to leave his colleagues in Kinsale in the lurch.
“Just a little luck, a bit of luck. Hopefully now we’ll be able to enjoy it,” he told RTÉ news yesterday about his share in Saturday’s €14 million jackpot.
Mr Broderick’s wife, Mary, was yesterday looking after 40 children at the Kinsale Community Playschool.
“Pat hasn’t decided what he’s going to do yet,” Ms Broderick said. “I’m still in a state of shock, to be honest. It’s still sinking in. We found out we’d won when Pat checked the computer on Saturday night.”
“Pat always plays the Lotto and always uses the same numbers. So our numbers turned out to be very lucky this time. We haven’t decided when we’re going to go up to Dublin to collect the winnings, because everything’s a bit of a blur at this stage.”
The postman is planning to donate part of his windfall to buy a premises for a community playschool that faces closure because two primary schools that are amalgamating need the space.
Ms Broderick has been campaigning for months to locate a new premises. Yesterday she promised she would use her new-found wealth to ensure the children don’t lose their playschool.
Ms Broderick, who attended morning Mass in Kinsale before work yesterday, added: “I’ll certainly see what we can do to help secure a new premises. We won’t let the kids down.”
Meanwhile the long-serving postman, who celebrated his win with his family at the White House bar in the town on Monday night, was last night preparing to make what could be his final delivery – to Lotto headquarters in Dublin to pick up his bumper cheque.