‘I’d give my life to hear from my four kids’
Deceased father at centre of Lotto court row spoke on Liveline about estrangement
THE deceased father at the centre of the recent disputed €3.4m Lotto case once spoke on the national airwaves of the pain that his estrangement from his children had caused, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Peter Walsh, who died following a battle with breast cancer – a rarity in men – spoke to RTÉ’s Liveline in February 2010, less than a year before he won the Lotto in January 2011.
He said he would give his ‘heart’s blood’ for any of his four children to ring him.
Three weeks before Mr Walsh and his second wife, Mary Walsh won the €3.38m jackpot, his son David reconnected with him.
Tragically, Peter died in December 2011.
David Walsh later sued his stepmother, Mary, for his share in a €3.38m Lotto win and, earlier this month, won his case. The judge ordered Mrs Walsh to pay her stepson – one of six family members who had signed the back of the winning ticket – €564,000 plus costs.
However, during the 2010 interview, Peter Walsh spoke about his estrangement from his children.
He told listeners how he was first diagnosed with cancer despite being ‘super-fit’ from ballroom dancing with partner Mary.
‘I was 65 when I was first diagnosed with cancer and I am now 76. It was 11 years ago. It was a terrible shock to get diagnosed a second time. I’m not worried about dying because if that happens, it happens.’ Speaking about how his family had been dealing with his diagnosis, Mr Walsh explained that he had married for a second time. ‘I only got married to my partner Mary in the year 2000. I was ill at the time and she was minding me – you see, she had been my dance partner.
‘I have two sons and two daughters and I see little or nothing of them. My birthday was last week and I didn’t even get a card from them. That happened when me and my first wife broke up back in 1984.
‘It is sad because I love my kids and I would have died for the four of them. How they turned against me, I don’t know.’
Mr Walsh said that he was not aware at the time of the interview if his children were aware of his illness.
‘I sent one of them a text but I didn’t really get a reply from him. He was in San Francisco for many years and he is home now living in Ballinasloe. My other two daughters and son also live there and that’s only three miles down the road from me.
‘I have no contact with any of them at all. I would give my heart’s blood if they rang me. I always loved them and I worked for them all my life to provide them with a home and try to get them a good education.
‘I know what’s happened but I can’t say it. In my heart, I know that I did nothing wrong.’
‘I don’t know how they turned against me’