Irish woman wins record 115 million euros

Dublin - The legendary luck of the Irish was true for once when a local lottery player scooped a record jackpot of more than 115 million euros (140 million dollars), the Irish national lottery said.

The winner, whose name was not released, won the fortune in the Euro Millions lottery as the only player who picked the five winning numbers and ticked off the two "star" numbers, lottery officials said.

The jackpot had not been won since May and had been rolled over nine times before Friday night's draw. The winning numbers were three, 19, 26, 49, and 50, and the Lucky Stars were four and five.

RTE state radio named the winner as Dolores McNamara, from Gallyowen, Limerick, in the southwest of the country.

Ireland Online said McNamara's small, terraced white bungalow was deserted Saturday.

McNamara has five children of whom the youngest two still live at the family home.

Her youngest son, 13, cycled around telling excited friends he would like to buy a horse and go on holiday, the website said.

It said McNamara was in a bar in Limerick on Friday night when she checked her ticket to find she had drawn the winning numbers.

Barman Tom Purcell said when the numbers were confirmed, McNamara showed the winning ticket to everybody and champagne was brought out for a big party.

"It was great craic (festivity). It was all family. All her family are regulars here," he said according to Ireland Online.

Jack Greer, who said he was with her at the time, told the radio station that she went straight to the police to ask them to take care of her ticket, then phoned her bank manager who responded with haste.

"She went up to the Garda (Irish police) station for them to look after it. They said they couldn't take responsibility for it so they phoned her bank manager," he said.

"He came down to the Garda station and picked her up and took her to the bank and put it in the vault."

The Irish player's jackpot was exactly 115,436,126 euros, beating the previous Euro Millions record in April when a player in Switzerland won 64,040,749 euros.

The National Lottery office in Dublin is closed because of a bank holiday weekend so McNamara will be unable to claim her prize before Tuesday.

The Irish player's jackpot was exactly 115,436,126 euros, beating the previous Euro Millions record in April when a player in Switzerland won 64,040,749 euros.

The win would instantly place McNamara comfortably in the top 80 richest people in Ireland on the 2004 Rich List published annually by Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

However she would be a long way behind top-20 material such as rock band U2, 'Lord of the Dance' Michael Flatley and Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary.

The first European lottery, Euro Millions was launched in February 2004 by France, Spain and Britain, while Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Ireland and Austria joined a few months later.

The National Lottery operates Euro Millions in Ireland. -- Reuters

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