€3.84m is a Lotto cheddar
TEN colleagues who work on the Cheesestrings production line at Kerry Foods in Co. Cork picked up their cheque for almost €4million yesterday.
Syndicate members, who have been pooling their money to buy tickets for 12 years, now share the jackpot of €3,883,756.
Eilish Hayes, the only woman in the group, said they would not disband the syndicate. ‘We’re not going to stop,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, we’ll be here again.’
THERE were cheesy grins at the National Lottery HQ yesterday as a group of ten colleagues that work on the Cheesestrings production line collected t heir winnings.
The syndicate from the Kerry Foods factory in Charleville, Co. Cork collected their cheque for €3,883,756 after realising they hit the jackpot last Monday.
All ten winners – nine men and one woman – toasted champagne, ate strawberries and took photographs with the big cheque at the Dublin offices yesterday.
The syndicate, who call themselves The Chosen Few, have been playing the lotto together for 12 years.
Eilish Hayes, the only woman in the group, collects €6 from each of her colleagues every month.
She used to always buy a quick pick ticket, until last month where the group chose the numbers for the first time ever. Her gamble proved to pay off, with each members taking home around €388,000 each.
Ms Hayes, who has worked at the factory for 14 years, said: ‘It was always Quick Pick before this.
‘Three months ago, the girl in the shop in O’Grady’s pressed the wrong
‘We’ve played lotto
for 12 years’
button and we got a Euromillions ticket.
‘The next month they said they couldn’t do it.
‘Something was wrong with the machine and we left it three weeks before we did it again.
‘Last month, I said to the lads to sit down and pick numbers because we’ll know them for the month then.
‘Eugene O’Sullivan and Jerome Maher picked out the numbers and lo and behold, they came up.
‘It was always Quick Pick before this. Always. It’s unbelievable.’
Eugene O’Sullivan, who plans to spend his share of the winnings on a racehorse, said he chose ‘random numbers’ and that there were no meanings behind any of them.
Despite their winnings, all ten members of the syndicate plan to continue working in the Kerry Foods factory and playing the lottery together.
Ms Hayes said: ‘We’re going to keep doing it.
‘We’ve been doing it for 12 years so we’re not going to stop.
‘We’re going to do it again in Dublin today so hopefully we’ll be back here again.’
The National Lottery’s Paula McEvoy said: ‘This is the secondhighest Lotto win this year and it’s great to have a syndicate like that, ten people, win it.
‘It’s going to make their dreams come true.
‘There are so many plans for it, one man is going to buy a racehorse.
‘They have both exotic and regular plans and it’s great to see an amount like that being shared by so many who also happen to work together.
‘You work a long number of hours with people every day so it’s great to share the good times with them as well as the day to day work.
‘There’s a real team spirit in Kerry Foods so for them to win is super.’
The winning ticket was a €60 regular play ticket sold in O’Grady’s Foodmarket in Ballingarry, Co. Lim- erick, run by Limerick hurling captain, Donal O’Grady, on October 24. Mr O’Grady said: ‘We’re delighted. ‘The one thing we hoped was that the winner would be someone in the general locality.’