LOTTO FEVER!
WAS IT YOU?...THE NEW GREETING IN KILMORE AS SOMEONE SCOOPS €2 MILLION ON THE LOTTO
LOTTO FEVER has gripped Kilmore Quay after the local Mace Burrows store sold a €2 million winning ticket for Saturday night’s draw.
No winner has come forward yet but locals in the village have been speculating all weekend as to who the lucky winner might be.
John Brady, the owner of Mace Burrows, said there was plenty of banter and jokes flying around, but the general hope was that the winner was someone who really needed the money. He said they had been shocked but delighted by the news and wished the best of luck to whoever the winner was, local or otherwise.
With the Quay being a popuar tourist location in the summer, there is also a strong chance that the winner may simply have been passing through but locals are hopeful that the money has been won by one of their own.
THE VILLAGE of Kilmore Quay is on high alert after Saturday’s €2m winning Quick Pick lottery ticket was sold at the store, and plenty of speculation has been ongoing over the weekend.
The Mace Burrows store in the quay, which is known by the locals simply as Brady’s, got word on Sunday morning that they had sold the jackpot winning ticket. The shop, which employs about six people, is owned and run by Deirdre Brady and her son John. They have been operating in the business since 2004 and this is their first big lotto win.
Deirdre Brady explained that she had received a call on Saturday night but had left her phone in the shop and didn’t see the message until Sunday morning. When they saw the message, they were shocked but delighted.
John added that there was loads of speculation with plenty of jokes about new yachts and things like that.
‘The general feeling from people is the hope that it’s someone who really needs it. The local trade here is fantastic so there’s a good chance that it’s local. Here’s hoping that it is but if not, good luck to them all the same.’
The news quickly filtered into the local community and, all through the weekend, customers flocked to the shop for the banter and to theorise over who the winner might be.
Local woman Sharon McGee reckoned it would be the person that they might not see for the next few weeks!
‘All weekend, people were asking each other ‘was it you?’ It was almost an accusation! By Sunday evening, there were plenty of theories and people saying they’d have to go to Brady’s as it was a lucky shop. There’s great excitement in the village and, whoever the winner is, I hope it brings them joy.’
Life went on in the busy shop as normal but the sense of infectious good will permeated throughout the village with the one topic on everyone’s minds being: who’s the new miilionaire?
One customer hadn’t heard the news until going to work that morning when a colleague remarked: ‘And there’s two million out in the Quay!’
Another local jokingly grilled shop owner John Brady about the week’s customers, saying he surely knew who had been in the place from Monday to Saturday. When John offered the name of a local, the man replied: ‘Well he definitely didn’t win it because he wouldn’t shut up about it if he had!’
Alan ‘Del Boy’ Walsh wasn’t shy about denying that he was the winner:
‘I wish! I wouldn’t be standing here if I had!’
He said he had heard the news on Sunday. He was in Wexford town with his daughter when her mother rang and asked if he had won the lotto.
‘My heart skipped a beat when I heard but then I remembered I hadn’t done the lotto so it couldn’t be me! I text my dad to see if he knew who won it because if anyone would know, it’d be him!’
He added that given the time of year and the recent spell of good weather, he felt it could have been someone visiting the area on summer holidays.
‘I don’t think anyone in the village would be able to keep it quiet. If it was someone from here, we’d nearly have heard by now. I hope it is someone local, it’d be great for the village.’