And cheers to selling €39m lottery ticket
EuroMillions excitement at Dublin shop
IRELAND’S newest millionaire purchased their winning €38.9million lottery ticket in a newsagents in Malahide, north Co. Dublin, it emerged yesterday.
The EuroMillions winner has chosen to keep their identity private but as news spread yesterday morning, locals hoped it was one of their own.
The Village Shop Malahide, on Main Street, was abuzz with excitement as customers trickling in realised that the shop had sold the golden ticket. Shop owner Amy Cong was only told the good news on Wednesday night, and described that moment as ‘unreal’.
‘It was a really exciting moment. Unbelievable. I never thought in my life I’d sell a €38million ticket. It was a good shock,’ said Ms Cong, who has owned the shop since 2003. ‘It was happy for me when I learned that [the ticket] was sold in Ireland but I wasn’t thinking that it was my shop – I wasn’t thinking that I would be that lucky.’
She continued: ‘We are a small shop, but we’re very busy in central Malahide. We have loads of regular customers, they come in and buy tickets and their groceries. I think this win will boost our business massively in the coming months.
‘We don’t know who the person or persons are – obviously most of our customers are from Malahide, the local community – so we really hope it’s one of those locals.’
Ms Cong anticipates that business will boom following the news of the lucky purchase. She has just one employee, and said: ‘I think we’ll need another one after this.’
Ms Cong is from eastern China and moved to Ireland 20 years ago. She and her husband, Ken, will pocket €25,000 for selling the ticket. The shop previously sold a €300,000 Lotto Plus 1 winning ticket.
It was revealed at the weekend that Mayo-born priest Monsignor John Delaney, who has lived in the US for a number of years, had scooped a €500,000 prize on a EuroMillions Plus draw.
He bought his ticket just around the corner from The Village Shop, in Donnybrook Fair, Malahide. The priest – who had been home on holidays when he bought the ticket – visited the newsagent yesterday to share in the excitement.
Barry Kerrigan, owner of neighbouring Kerrigans Butchers, said he regularly purchases a lottery ticket in the Village Shop. He said: ‘We do the lottery every week next door – we have a syndicate.’
But regarding the latest jackpot win, he noted ‘it wasn’t us’, before adding: ‘I’m happy for someone that won it, I hope they put it to good use.’
The National Lottery’s Miriam Donohoe said the winner had come forward and had been taking legal and financial advice.
The prize money has not yet been transferred to the winner, and the ticket is in safe keeping in the National Lottery office.
‘We love when we have a big jackpot win and in terms of our standing with the EuroMillions jackpot – this is fantastic,’ Ms Donohoe told the Irish Daily Mail yesterday. ‘Last year we had a record three jackpots in EuroMillions, our 12th since EuroMillions started in 2004, so it’s great for us.
‘The shop was only informed last night [Wednesday]; we had to keep very tight-lipped. They were shocked but really delighted as well that the ticket was sold here and the winner was may be local. [The winner will] be back in to us to claim the cheque.
‘But they’re not going public – they’re very certain about that.’
‘We’ll have to take on another worker’