They seek him here, they seek him there...mystery surrounds Kingscourt Lotto winner

Excitement has been at fever pitch in the north Meath/south Cavan area this week, with speculation about the owners of the National Lottery ticket, which won just over €7 million in the weekend Lotto draw. A ticket sold in Pat's Store in Kingscourt was one of two tickets to share the €14 million jackpot. The other ticket was sold in Kinsale, Co Cork. Speculation has been rife that the winner is from the Kilmainhamwood area, while there were also rumours the winner was from nearby Muff, but Pádraig McCormack of Pat's Stores on Main Street said the winner could have been from anywhere. "There was a big handball tournament here on Saturday and there were people from all over doing the Lotto in here," he said. The €6 ticket bought in McCormack's, included €3 of Quick Pick numbers, but the winning numbers were the winner's own numbers. Pat's Stores also sold two Winning Streak tickets in the last few years and he is hoping that this big prize has been won by a local. "We are delighted. The buzz in the town is great, The National Lottery came up here and did the place up with balloons and there is great excitement. The national media were here and they have been chasing around trying to find the winner," he said. Mr MacCormack recalled that the local parish priest, Fr Gerry MacCormack, had been joking at Mass last week that if anyone local won the Lotto, he could do with a bit of help to put up a new roof on the church. Fr MacCormack said that, two weeks ago, the parish finance committee had presented audited accounts at Mass and he had thanked people for their support and spoke of the major restoration work that was needed. "I quipped that if anybody won the lottery, they might help out with the restoration work!" he said. "Little did I think we would have a winner," he added. Fr MacCormack recalled that, 25 years ago, the then parish priest, Fr Andy Farrell, had made a similar joke and, the following week, there was a local winner who did make a contribution! Fr MacCormack said the win was great for the town. "The buzz is nearly as good as when Kingscourt won the county championship," he said. The combined €14,037,236 prize was the biggest so far this year and the latest winners become the 411th millionaires to be created since the Lotto games began in 1988. Meanwhile, last Friday, a very happy married couple from Meath collected their €250,000 Lotto Plus 2 prize. Their lucky ticket was purchased in Ryan's Newsagents, Main Street, Enfield, on Tuesday 8th March and was a €16 multi-draw ticket. The draw in which the couple won their prize took place on Saturday 12th March. The couple, who have a grown-up family and wish their win to remain "very private", discovered they had won "a couple of days after the draw took place". They decided to wait and consider matters before collecting their prizemoney. They have no special plans for the win as yet "as it's early days yet and we'd prefer to wait and see".