Cork family wins Lotto jackpot: Reports

A large family in Cork City are believed to have scooped the €16m largest ever National Lottery jackpot in Ireland, it emerged today.

The winning ticket was bought on Friday at the Centra supermarket on Closes Road in Farranree in the north of the city.

Store manager Barry Twomey said the area was alive with excitement as rumours spread about the identity of the overnight multi-millionaire.

"To be honest I think the people of the neighbourhood have a very good idea who the winner is, but it would be wrong of me to name the person," he said.

"I believe it is quite a large family."

Lotto chiefs contacted Mr Twomey to tell him a €4 Quickpick ticket bought at his shop had the winning six numbers for the Lotto draw that broke all records.

"The vast majority of my customers are local," he said.

"We were confident from the first time we were contacted by the Lotto representatives that it was someone local. All the indications are that it is."

He added: "The rumour mill starts immediately but the same name keeps coming back."

Lottery fever had gripped the country in recent days as the jackpot reached unprecedented levels as it rolled over every Saturday and Wednesday for the past five weeks.

More than two million tickets were sold for each of the last two draws, smashing all previous sales records.

"We’re all absolutely ecstatic," said Mr Twomey.

"Myself and my wife Susan have been in business for seven years and it’s the first time that we’ve had a large winner.

"Everybody that is coming into the shop is delighted and enquiring about it. There’s congratulations all over. We cracked open a bottle of champagne earlier.

"It’s great that it’s someone in the area, especially someone who I believe has quite a large family."

The record number of tickets sold for last night’s draw amounted to around two-thirds of the adult population.

Around 5,500 tickets were being bought every minute between 6pm and 7.45pm at the peak of the frenzy.