Millionaire Dolores entered draw by accident

THE mother of six who won €115 million in the Euromillions lotto didn’t even know she was entering the competition, and instead thought she’d bought a ticket for the National Lottery draw.

In her first interview since becoming Ireland’s 72nd richest person, Dolores McNamara revealed she’d meant to buy lines for the National Lottery and got confused when the shop assistant asked if she wanted a Euromillions ticket.

The Limerick woman, currently enjoying a holiday in a secret location, said: “I didn’t know that this was a different draw to the Saturday night one on RTÉ television, so I just said yes. The lady asked if it was a quick-pick I wanted. I said it was. I wouldn’t have bothered staying to do it if I’d had to pick out numbers and mark them on a slip.”

That quick-pick turned out to be the fastest possible route to multi-millionaire status for Dolores who just as quickly found herself and her family the focus of an international media frenzy.

“We were not prepared for the intrusion by certain elements of the media. We are aware that the press has bothered some of our friends and neighbours too,” she told the Limerick Leader.

“The whole family have found the media intrusion to be very upsetting and very frightening, and I know now what it is to spin a story. I’ve decided that I don’t want anything to do with the gutter press.”

Dolores got her own back on the press when she disappeared after her win and spent a few days virtually unnoticed in the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork, even slipping out to go to the shop and take some air.

She also used a decoy to divert reporters’ attention as she made a dash for Dublin and since picking up her cheque she has travelled by private jet and hired cars with blacked out windows.

A week to the day that her life changed forever, she and her husband Aidan and their family fled to a luxury hotel in London and they haven’t been home since. “It truly was the best day of my life,” Dolores revealed. “I’d always had a dream to whip my family away in a private jet and it came true that day.”

Since then, however, her thoughts have returned to Limerick and while she didn’t disclose when she might next be seen back in her beloved Garryowen, she made it clear that she wants her old home and life-long friends to be firm fixtures in her future.

“We’re not planning on changing our lifestyle, and we certainly have no plans to change our friends.”