Limerick mum claims giant EuroMillions cheque

Irish housewife Dolores McNamara today handed over the winning ticket to claim the biggest jackpot in European lottery history.

After four days in hiding, the Limerick woman finally braved the attention to collect her €115m cheque.

The mother-of-six has been living in luxury in a hotel in Cork, with her husband Adrian, several of her children and friends, since she learned of her massive win last Friday.

Mrs McNamara looked bewildered as she was escorted into the National Lottery offices in Dublin, accompanied by her solicitor whose briefcase was believed to contain the winning ticket, around 2.30pm.

After three days awaiting her entrance, four lottery officials had installed barricades to ensure her safe passage into the building past the waiting crowds of onlookers.

She travelled the half-hour journey in a dark-coloured Jaguar saloon car from Dublin’s Red Cow Hotel on the Naas Road.

Mrs McNamara, who was wearing a stylish white jacket and dark-coloured trousers, was silent as she entered the building.

The housewife travelled to the capital late last night after her hideout in Cork was rumbled.

Mrs McNamara has enjoyed a makeover over the past few days as she waited to pick up her jackpot.

In Moran’s Silversprings Hotel near Cork, Mrs McNamara had treated herself and several other women in her group to makeovers, which included getting their hair coloured, facials, manicures and make up applied professionally.

Mrs McNamara’s solicitor, David Sweeney, has said the housewife’s first priority is her husband and their six children, Dawn, 28, Kim, 22, Kevanne, 20, Gary, 26, Dean, 15 and her 13-year-old son Lee.

The solicitor has already appealed for space on behalf of the Limerick family to absorb the enormity of Friday night’s EuroMillions win.