Over €14.8 million paid out as players from Cork, Dublin & Galway collect National Lottery prizes

 Joe & Mairead Rogan, owners of Rogan's services station in Clifden, Co. Galway

It was a life-changing start to the weekend for a number of individual families from Cork, Dublin and Galway who claimed over €14.8 million in prizes at Lotto HQ in Dublin City centre on Friday afternoon. Among the prizes claimed was a €7.3 million Lotto jackpot win from Clifden in Co. Galway, another Lotto jackpot worth €6.9 million from Co. Cork and a EuroMillions Plus top prize win of €500,000 from Dublin.

The biggest winners of the day was a large family syndicate from the west of Ireland who scooped the €7,337,744 Lotto jackpot on Saturday 17th August.

The family syndicate who wish to keep their win private purchased their lucky ticket at Rogan’s Service Station in the centre of Clifden town. A spokesperson for the family syndicate said: “It’s almost been two weeks since we hit the jackpot and I cannot describe the wide range of emotions we have gone through since then. There is such a huge buzz in Clifden and there are a lot of rumours circulating which are quite funny to us all as we try to come to terms of our new status as calmly as we can. While we wish to keep our win private, I am happy to confirm that none of our family visited a certain golf society event to celebrate becoming overnight millionaires,” he laughed.

During Covid19 restrictions, the family revealed that they turned to playing National Lottery games as a means of keeping in touch through lockdown.

“We are such a close family and when the Covid19 lock-down was in place, we had been playing the National Lottery remotely to pass the time. We are constantly texting each other with reminders to pick up the Lotto or TellyBingo tickets so we get a great kick out of any wins we have picked up along the way. The morning after the big draw, I was at home listening to the radio and I heard that the €7.3 million was won in Galway. Imagine my efforts trying to text the entire family to explain that we were multimillionaires! It has been a magical few weeks but we will be keeping our feet firmly planted to the ground before we make any big decisions on our spending,” he said.

Another family to become overnight National Lottery millionaires was a lucky Cork clan who also claimed a Lotto jackpot win which in this case was worth €6,993,904. The lucky Cork family who also wish to claim their prize anonymously won the jackpot prize on Saturday 20th June with a ticket they purchased at Murphy’s CircleK service station in Togher on the south side of Cork City.

Speaking as his family claimed the €6.9 million prize, the winning father of the group recalled his reaction to winning the jackpot prize. “I didn’t tell anybody about it for a day,” he chuckled. “I was eating my dinner in front of the telly on Saturday night when the Lotto numbers were rolling out. I pulled the ticket out of my pocket and every single number on my ticket was on the television in front of me. To me, there must have been a mistake and I needed to comprehend this myself before I told anybody else. I was absolutely sick to my stomach and my dinner went straight into the bin! Obviously the entire family was worried about me so I just went up to bed and I stared at the ceiling the entire night without getting a wink of sleep! I cannot describe the relief when I was finally able to tell my family the next morning,” he said.

The spokesperson for the family syndicate said that his family have taken the last number of months to adjust to their new found fortune and they now feel comfortable putting plans into place for their winnings, “We’ve had all summer to think about what we want to do with our money. We have a very small group of friends and family who we have trusted with our good news so we are planning to pay off some bills and mortgages. We will be sure to look after those people who are so important to us,” he said.

The last winners to come through the doors of Lotto HQ on Friday evening were a kind-hearted Dublin couple who claimed a €500,000 EuroMillions Plus prize but stated their intention to give every penny to their children and grandchildren to give them ‘the best start in life’.

The lucky couple have had plenty of time to think about their spending plans as they won their €500,000 prize way back in April 17 with a ticket they purchased at the SuperValu store in Walkinstown, Dublin 12.

With a cheque for half a million euro in his hand, the beaming husband said, “Just look at us. We’re sitting in the famous winners’ room of the National Lottery and we couldn’t be happier. We’re not happy for ourselves but all of this money will be split between our children and grandchildren to give them the best start in life. Money can’t make our lives happier than we already are but knowing that we’re going to be able to support our family means more than the money for us. It’s a very emotional day for us,” said the Dublin man.

Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on all National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish Language. In total more than €5.6 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery as established 32 years ago. In 2019 alone, €250 million was raised for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.