Mother-of-six is biggest lottery jackpot winner

The luckiest woman in Europe lives in a small white bungalow with two horseshoe-decorated flowerboxes outside it.

The traditional symbols of luck worked their magic for Dolores McNamara, 50, last night when she became the winner of the biggest ever EuroMillions jackpot.

The mother of six grew up in Garryowen in Limerick city.

After emigrating to Blackpool in England, Dolores returned to Limerick in the 1980s and settled down to raise a family of six children with her husband, Adrian.

Just two of the children – 13-year-old Lee and 15-year-old Dean – remain in the family home, as the eldest son, Gary, 26, and the three daughters, Dawn, 28, Kim, 22 and Kevan, 20, have moved out to live in different parts of Limerick city.

“She is a lovely person. She married and she raised a lovely family. That’s all I can say,” said Geraldine Donohoe, who went to school in Limerick with Dolores.

“She more than deserved what she got.”

But she said that Dolores had been ‘devastated’ by the news of her win.

Today the McNamara’s small terraced house was deserted and the only family member still around after a night of raucous celebrations was their 13-year-old son Lee.

He cycled around on his bike on the narrow roads outside and met his excited friends, telling them that he’d like to buy a horse and go on holidays with some of the €115m jackpot.

“I heard the news at 12 o’clock. My mother’s very tired,” he said.

As neighbours milled around the house, there was much joking about the family’s blue Opel car parked in the driveway, with speculation that it would soon be replaced by a Ferrari.

Marie Ryan, a 17-year old neighbour, said she was delighted for the McNamara family.

“I was at work when I heard it. I was leaping and jumping up and down in the shop,” she said.

Her friend, Aoife McSweeney, 16, said that today was the 15th birthday of the McNamaras’ second youngest son, Dean.

“It’ll be a birthday to remember,” she said.

Stephen McCarthy, 17, said he got the good news early in the morning when Lee rang him on his mobile phone.

“He said they’d won the Lotto. I didn’t believe him though. And I hung up and he rang back a few minutes later.”

He went to the McNamara house, where a family party was still continuing into the early hours of the morning.

“Everyone was roaring and shouting. They were happy,” he said.

The lottery ticket was bought yesterday evening in the Garryowen Stores, a small convenience shop around half a mile from the McNamara home. It is also adjacent to an Italian chip shop and the Track Bar, where Dolores was drinking with friends.

The shop, which has a sticker advertising the EuroMillions draw on its window, last sold a winning lottery ticket 13 years ago when it was under previous management.

Mary Brosnan, whose husband now owns the store, said the demand for EuroMillions tickets had been slow until May. That was when the EuroMillions jackpot began the first of its nine rollovers and steadily grew up to €115m.

“We saw more people coming in but sure we never thought it would be won here in Ireland, not to mind the shop winning,” she said.

Quintin Masaw, a 23-year-old Zimbabwean who has been working in the shop for two years, said he believed he might have sold the winning ticket to Dolores.

“If it was sold between 3pm and 9pm yesterday, it might have been me,” he said.

But according to a local man, Lawrence Moriarity, the ticket was sold to Dolores by another shop employee, Christopher Lyons.

“There was only two of us there. She was getting her one and I was behind her,” he said.

While drinking a pint of Guinness at the Track Bar next door, he said it was the third time that day that he had visited the shop to buy a EuroMillions ticket.

“I’ll never win it now. It could have been but that’s the way it goes.”

His friend, James Ahern, told him that there was always a next time.

“Make sure if there’s someone in front of you that you push them out of the way,” he said.

However, Lawrence pledged to go on playing EuroMillions with his syndicate in the hope of eventually striking it lucky like Dolores.

“Never give up. It’s only the price of a pint and you never know. Someone has to win it.”

Dolores and her family were sitting at a table at the Track Bar’s modern inner section last night when they saw the EuroMillions numbers flash up on the screen.

She couldn’t believe they were her numbers and rang a neighbour to get her to check them on Teletext.

Barman Tom Purcell said that when the numbers were confirmed, the winning ticket was shown to everybody and a big party started involving bottles of champagne.

“It was great craic. It was all family. All her family are regulars here,” he said.

Many of the other drinkers in the pub today were debating about what should be done with the €115m jackpot, with some claiming they would take a cruise around the world with their friends and others saying they would give most of it to local charities.

But then Lawrence Moriarity changed the direction of the debate by recalling how many lottery winners had struggled to enjoy their good fortune.

“It can make you happy or miserable. There’s a lot of tragedies. Your health is your wealth really,” he said.

James Ahern replied: “It’s grand to say that once you haven’t got it.”

Local Garryowen resident, Barry O’Brien, 70, said the EuroMillions lottery win was a great boost for the city.

“I’m delighted the lady won it and it’ll do Limerick good too. You never know, she might invest it in Limerick.”