Family collect €2.5m Lotto winnings

Eleven members and three generations of a Cavan family made their way to Dublin today to collect their €2.5m Lotto jackpot.

Forklift truck driver Manus McKiernan brought his wife, Gretta, their eight children and his 80-year-old mother to the National Lottery’s headquarters to pick up their cheque.

Mr McKiernan, who chose the winning numbers himself, bought the €9 Lotto ticket at Bannon’s Newsagents in the family’s hometown of Ballyconnell.

The couple’s eight children, who range in age from 34 years to 13, have promised to help their father spend the €2,454,199 winnings from Saturday night’s Lotto draw.

Manus’s mother, Sadie McKiernan, who was 80-years-old last Christmas, also attended the presentation of the cheque.

The family said they had no immediate plans for their winnings except to take a holiday and “chill out”.

Gretta McKiernan said she had passed the National Lottery’s offices while on a trip with her sister, Pauline, to see a show in Dublin recently.

“I stood outside on the path and I remember saying to Pauline, ‘Imagine all the people who have been here on this path and have been so happy winning a Lotto jackpot’, little thinking I would be here myself in the space of a fortnight, going home with a cheque for a fortune,” she said.

“It’s a great day and we’re all really enjoying it.”