Lotto millionaires go to ground

Ireland’s newest millionaires went underground today as lotto fever hit Carlow town.

The 16-person syndicate, who work at a concrete and quarry plant, have still not made any moves to claim the record €18.9m jackpot which they scooped on Saturday night. Just a handful of the winners showed up for work at Dan Morrissey Irl Ltd in Bennekerry today after celebrating the win into the early hours of the morning.

Those who did escaped the glare of waiting cameras by holding their hands held up to cover their faces, while one ducked in the passenger seat of his daughter’s car.

Patrick Kearns, whose daughter Audrey and brother Thomas were part of the group, said he was thrilled with the support from the local community.

“On behalf of the syndicate I would like to thank everybody who contacted us to wish us all the best with our fortunes,” the Carlow man said leaving the plant.

Audrey – a former employee who stayed on the syndicate books – is making her way home from a holiday in Canada. Work at site continued as normal throughout the day, but management and staff remained tight-lipped about the win – the second at the plant in recent years. In 2001, another 16-strong syndicate from an office at the compound scooped a €256,000 prize in the Lotto.

Father-of-five John Doyle, who was also part of the syndicate along with his son Aaron, said the lucky workmates were all in disbelief.

“We are doing it seven years. We’ve only won €50s or €100s and that, this is the first major win,” he said.

“(We’re in) disbelief. Sure we didn’t believe it, I’d say it was 8pm or 9pm last night before we even started. You see we were all together, most of us were together, some of us were out of the country so we were waiting for them to come back. Disbelief, really it still is.”

Mr Doyle, who has worked In the local quarry factory for more than 30 years, said he never thought they would hit the jackpot.

“You know the way you do it and then every Monday morning we’re all together and ’well, did we do it, did we do it, will we get the bus, what will we do,’ laughing and joking, sure that’s really all,” he said.

“It’s a gamble, I mean I don’t even back horses or anything, just gamble €4 every week that’s it.”

Millionaire Doyle said it was great the massive jackpot, the biggest in the game’s history, went to a syndicate.

“It’s great. It would be too much money for one to win and I can‘t believe that it was as big when we did win it,” he said.

“But we have to sit down now and see what we are going to do.” Three of the winners are said to hail from Kildare, while 13 live in Carlow.

The others winners were named locally as brothers Michael and Brendan Morrissey - son of company director Dan Morrissey – Robert Lewis, Thomas Cassidy, Patrick Honerfort, Ken Treacey, Sean Gahon, Joe Foley, Liam O’Neill, Benny Doyle and Tony Egan. Brendan is also making his way home from London.

The group are said to be meeting at a private location today to discuss their record prize before travelling to Dublin together to collect their winnings.

However, a National Lottery spokeswoman said its office had still not had any confirmation from the winning ticket holder.

The winning €32 multi-draw quick pick was the largest prize in the 20-year history of the game.

It was sold at Hickson’s Centra store on the Staplestown Road in Carlow town last Wednesday.

The store, currently run by brothers PJ, Tommy and Donal Hickson, also sold winning jackpot tickets under previous management.

Around 3,500 people bought a line in the jackpot every minute during peak time on Saturday in the run-up to the draw, which had rolled over for 16 draws since May 3.

The record prize tops the €16m won by the Cunningham family from Cork in July last year and €15.65m paid out to a family from Clondalkin in Dublin in April.

Limerick woman Dolores McNamara remains the country’s biggest lottery winner after scooping €115m in the Euromillions in 2005.