As rumours circulated about the identity or location of Ireland's newest multimillionaire yesterday, the holder of the latest golden EuroMillions ticket quietly made contact with the National Lottery to make arrangements to collect their €88.5 million jackpot.
Shortly after lunch National Lottery headquarters confirmed the ticket holder had been in touch and would be coming in to pick up their prize money next week.
A spokeswoman declined to say where the ticket had been bought or if the winning numbers had been chosen by just one person or a syndicate.
#EuroMillions results are in.
— The National Lottery (@NationalLottery) January 24, 2017
Jackpot: €88,587,275
Winner: 1
Location: #ShareTheDream pic.twitter.com/BQrbEZU0A4
The winners will not be able to collect their loot until next week as the National Lottery has to allow itself time to collect millions of euro from operators in the eight other European countries where the EuroMillions operates.
The winning ticket was variously said to have been sold to a syndicate in Limerick and an individual in Mayo, although many people zoned in on a shop in the Cork village of Glounthaune.
Amidst the frenzied speculation, the manager of Fitzpatrick’s store Kerri O’Neill could only say there had been “rumours and suspicions” that the shop had sold the winning ticket.
Not confirmed
“We hope it’s true but we don’t know yet. Rumour has it that it’s a syndicate of 34 people from a company in
Little Island
industrial estate,” she said, although she stressed that the people in the know in the National Lottery had not yet confirmed whether Fitzpatrick’s had sold the ticket. She added that this key piece of the puzzle was not available to the shop from its Lotto machines.
“We have to sit tight until tomorrow. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that it is us,” she added.
When contacted by The Irish Times yesterday evening, a National Lottery spokeswoman remained tight-lipped and said it would not be releasing the location where the winning ticket was sold until Thursday at the earliest.
The National Lottery will have financial advisers and accountants on standby to assist the winner or winners should they need help. And there are few people who could win almost €90 million and not need some kind of help, although if the rumour mill is on the money and a syndicate of 34 people have won the jackpot, they will all collect a significantly more manageable €2.6 million each.
Tuesday night’s result prompted “luck of the Irish” headlines to pop up in Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, although it marked only the 10th jackpot win for Irish players since the EuroMillions was launched in 2004.
In the last year Irish players have won the jackpot on two other occasions. A group of friends shared €66 million in January 2016 after buying a ticket in the Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Carlow, and last July a syndicate of Dublin Bus drivers won almost €24 million.
The 12th-highest jackpot in the competition’s history was won by Dolores McNamara from Co Limerick, when she took home over €115 million in July 2005.
