Cheque please,sir!
32-strong syndicate pick up €17m in Lotto winnings
Each member gets €531,250
THE Lotto syndicate who scooped a €17million EuroMillions jackpot quaffed champagne and cheered yesterday as they collected their winnings.
But the 32 winners of the work syndicate from Tipperary have vowed they will spend their €531,250 share wisely – on clearing bills, paying off mortgages and going on holidays.
After arriving at Lottery headquarters in Dublin yesterday, winner Brian Sheehy said he was €16 overdrawn last week before he found out he was a winner.
He said: ‘I am going to sit on it for a while. I’ve two kids but I’m going to clear off my car loan, pay off my Visa.’
Winner Marie Loughnan from Thurles said she would use the money to look after her family.
She said: ‘I have five kids and eight grandchildren so we will look after everybody and it will be just brilliant. It will just make life much easier for everybody.
‘The feeling we have as a family – 32 families have that. It’s absolutely brilliant. We went into work on the morning after we won and it was just brilliant. We were just delighted.’
The syndicate, who work at Stakelums Home and Hardware store in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, won the June 5 jackpot
Outside National Lottery HQ, syndicate organiser Gerard Sammon, said he was in shock when he discovered he had the winning ticket in his hand. ‘I went into the other room to my wife and I said: “I think we’ve won the EuroMillions” and she said: “You’re joking!”,’ he said. ‘We are just over the moon, just coming in here and the reception we got here in the National Lottery is just beginning to make it all real now.’
He also said: ‘The advice from the Lottery, which is great advice too, is just to settle and not do anything immediate for a while anyway. Me personally, my dream holiday is a cruise that goes out of Florida. It’s a music cruise and has country music singers such as Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, Josh Ritter.’
The winners praised him for organising the syndicate and being meticulous. But he said: ‘It is a big responsibility, especially on that night when you have the ticket in your hand and you don’t know what to do with it. I didn’t sleep that night.’