Waterford workers in disbelief at Lotto win

A GROUP of Waterford co-workers who won €1 million in the National Lottery last week might not have known of their good fortune had a member not heard a local radio report that the winning ticket had been purchased in the area.

The eight people in the syndicate at Brady’s Quality Foods in Waterford city are preparing to collect €125,000 each after their numbers came up in the Christmas Millionaire Raffle Draw last Friday.

The draw on New Year’s Eve, broadcast on RTÉ, yielded two winners of €1 million each.

Joan Brady, a director of Brady’s Quality Foods, said yesterday that she learned of the win only on Wednesday, from a news bulletin on WLR FM, and got excited when she heard the ticket had been bought in the Ballybeg area of the city.

“I had the news on and [newsreader] Mark Power said that the ticket had been sold in the local Tesco in Ballybeg. I went ‘Oh my God, that’s where I bought the ticket.’ I was screaming, I couldn’t believe it, I was completely gobsmacked, it was absolutely surreal,” she said.

Ms Brady said that the syndicate couldn’t believe its luck because the group was “the unluckiest syndicate in Ireland up until yesterday [Wednesday]”.

The winner of €100,000 in the same game has yet to claim the prize. The number of the winning ticket, which was sold in the post office on Main Street in Ballincollig, Co Cork, is 116550.

Ballincollig is turning out to be a very lucky place indeed. Discreetly visiting National Lottery headquarters yesterday were a couple from Co Cork who have a young family and who collected a win of €5,894,511.

The happy couple purchased their €8 quick-pick multi-draw ticket in the Eason shop in the Ballincollig shopping centre on December 22nd last for the Lotto draw on the same date. The jackpot had rolled over since December 1st.

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, are still coming to terms with the win.

“We are absolutely thrilled with this win but will need a lot of time to come to terms with it and think about our plans for the future. We had a lovely Christmas but we haven’t told anyone about this win yet, and we intend it to stay that way for the moment,” they said.

“We will make plans for our family, and take time to do that, and we also look forward to making some donations to some charities, in a private capacity, in the near future.”