A LOT OF LOTTO LUCK Alan Mulroy is pictured outside his shop and filling station in Castlebar after a €17 million EuroMillions lottery jackpot ticket was sold there in February of last year. Three EuroMillions jackpots and now the largest ever National Lottery jackpot tickets have been sold in Mayo’s county town, more proof that is it indeed ‘Europe’s luckiest town’ when it comes to lotto wins. Pic: Mac Innes Photography
News that the biggest Irish Lotto jackpot had been won in Mayo sent a wave of excitement across the entire county over the weekend.
The rumour mill certainly went into overdrive. The ticket worth €19.06 million had been sold in Achill, Westport, Claremorris or Ballinrobe, depending on who you talked to. However, just after 7.45am on Monday morning, the email arrived to confirm that once again, another huge lotto jackpot had been won in the county town of Castlebar.
This is in fact the fourth time a massive jackpot has been won in Castlebar — and despite the enormity of the jackpot, last Saturday’s win was not the biggest.
In July 2019, a winning EuroMillions jackpot ticket worth €29 million was won by a syndicate from Baxter Pharmaceuticals – and the ticket had been bought in Garryduff XL store in the town.
The first Castlebar EuroMillions jackpot was won back in April 2014 when a ticket worth €15 million was purchased at Staunton’s Costcutter Express on Main Street.
And less than two years ago, a ticket for a €17 million EuroMillions jackpot was sold in Castlebar, with that ticket having been bought in Mulroy’s Londis shop.
So, the county town can certainly lay claim to being the luckiest lotto town in Europe such has been the level of success experienced over the last seven years.
The winning numbers for Saturday were 02, 09, 16, 30, 37 and 40, while the bonus number was 23.
The National Lottery has confirmed that the ticket was a quick pick.
The drip-feed nature of the information being released by the National Lottery is certainly adding to the tension across the county. They first told the public the county, then the town – by Wednesday we will know which shop in Castlebar sold the lucky winning ticket.
Eight more winners
And there was more good news for eight other players in the county, as they each scooped the sum of €36,000 from the weekend’s draw. As the Lotto jackpot was capped at €19.06 million, the funds from Saturday night’s draw that would usually go to the jackpot flowed down to the next-highest tier at which there was a winner.
The ‘Will be Won’ event saw 149 winners at the Match 5 + Bonus tier, and they will share almost €5.5 million, leaving them with a nice €36,687 each. These Mayo winners were sold tickets in Charlestown, Ballinrobe, Ballina, Claremorris, Ballintubber, Balla and yes, Castlebar.
But while €36,000 is a lot of money in any man’s language, winning a jackpot of over €19 million is beyond life-changing. Whoever has been lucky enough to win the jackpot will certainly need time, space and plenty of advice in the coming weeks and months ahead.
We have all seen how winning big lottery jackpots can have an adverse effect on the winner’s life, often becoming too much of a burden. All we can do is wish the lucky winner the very best of luck, and hope the winning the jackpot will change the life for the better and bring them many years of joy and happiness.