Lucky 39 enjoy trip of lifetime to New York
He was travelling with his wife Ann, who was one of 39 National Lottery Big Money Game winners lucky enough to win the experience of living like a millionaire in New York.
In order to get to New York and spend the €2,500 in “walking around” money that they had won, Mr Kennedy had to apply for his first passport and only got it two days before takeoff.
The couple have now caught the travel bug and have promised that travelling will become part of their lives.
The Kennedys were not the only couple who couldn’t believe their luck in winning an all-expenses-paid trip to New York.
Ann and Patsy McCarthy said they were amazed when their names were drawn on the TV game show.
“The night I found out we were going to New York was the highlight,” said Ann from Conna village, Cork.
The McCarthys are planning to spoil their grandchildren when they get back to Cork and spent days looking for presents in the exclusive shops around Fifth Avenue.
“We have walked miles and miles and shopped. I have been in every shop on Fifth Avenue,” said Patsy.
When they weren’t pounding the pavements of Manhattan the lucky winners were staying in the exclusive Sofitel hotel Manhattan, the French hotel at the centre of the scandal involving former IMF boss Dominique Strauss Kahn.
The highlight of the trip for many of the contestants was a boat trip around the Statue of Liberty followed by dinner at the River Cafe.
Breda McCarthy from Muckross, Co Kerry, said that the River Cafe was what made the trip for her. “The flowers on the table and the band playing in the River Cafe were amazing,” she said.
The lucky winners also took in the broadway show, Jersey Boys, as well as the sights and sounds of Central Park and the Freedom Tower, while some even managed to catch the All-Ireland final on Sunday morning.
The winners were joined on the trip by the Big Money Game presenters Sinead Kennedy and Brian Ormond.
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