A Tipperary student who attended a disco in Dublin without knowing that the Lotto ticket in her back pocket was a £2.3 million winner was celebrating with well-wishers last night in a normally quiet village pub.
Ms Siobhan Malone (19), from Portroe, near Nenagh, and her parents Pat and Breda yesterday collected a cheque for £2,316,858 which they will share equally.
Last night more than 200 friends and relations held a party in Ciss Ryan's pub in Garrykennedy, where Mr Malone gave the news on Friday night.
"It was bedlam," said the pub's owner, Mr Roy Breen, who had extra staff on duty in expectation of more of the same as last night's celebrations got under way.
Ms Malone, a first-year arts student in UCD, bought the ticket in the Spar shop in her home town on Sunday April 12th, after overhearing another customer say there was a big jackpot coming up.
"I thought to myself, `sure I might as well play a £1 quick pick'. So I did, and here I am. I still can't believe it," she said when the family called to collect their cheque at the National Lottery's headquarters in Dublin.
The part-time hotel worker, who sits her first-year exams in less than three weeks, did not check her numbers until about 24 hours after the draw when an aunt in Dublin told her the winning ticket had been sold in Portroe.
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