'You cannot buy that happiness' says dad who plans to split €500k EuroMillions win with family

Three separate winners collected their prizes at National Lottery headquarters in Dublin city today.

Players from Kerry, Louth and Mayo picked up a massive €1.1 million in prize money from EuroMillions and scratch card games.

There were emotional celebrations for the first winners of the day as a large extended family from Co. Kerry travelled to Dublin to collect one of four EuroMillions Plus top prizes won last Friday night, which were worth €500,000 each.

The winning Kerry man, who wishes to keep his win private, was surrounded by his large family when he handed his ticket into lottery officials as he announced that he would be sharing the prize among the close relatives in attendance.

Last Friday evening, I didn’t have a half a million euro and I was still the happiest man in the world. We have a very close family and life is too short to be worrying about money.

"Some of the family here thought that I might give them a small few bob each to pay off a few car loans and that sort of thing but to see their faces when they were told they were getting an equal share, you just cannot buy that happiness."

The stunned family promised to be sensible with their windfall but the winning ticketholder will be planning some extra holidays for the winter months with his loving wife.

"My wife loves her holidays and often I don’t have the time to go. We’ll have to plan a couple of sun holidays in the winter and who knows, we might even upgrade to first class."

Another of last Friday’s EuroMillions Plus top prize winners was a lucky dad from Co. Louth who scooped the €500,000 top prize which he won by playing on the National Lottery App.

The Louth man was joined in the National Lottery’s winners’ room by his wife and small family as they discussed their plans for their €500,000 win.

"This is a dream come through for us. The win means that we can buy our own home and be mortgage free for the rest of our lives.

We have been looking at houses for the past few months but due to the increase in prices, we weren’t in a position to make any bids but that all changes today.

The delighted Louth dad received an email from the National Lottery late on Friday night to inform him of his win but the winner admitted that he still could not convince his family of his new found lottery fortune.

"It’s been an absolutely surreal couple of days and I’m still coming to terms with the shock. I received an email from the National Lottery on Friday night to tell me that there was some good news about my ticket and I opened the email assuming that I had won a couple of euro. Once the email was open, the €500,000 prize was staring at me on the screen.

I think it took the entire weekend to convince my wife that I wasn’t joking.

"We have a special bottle of champagne in the fridge waiting for us at home so we’ll enjoy a very quiet celebration before we officially start our house-hunt."

Meanwhile, a woman from Co. Mayo has found out, in the best possible way, that the best way to say thank you is a National Lottery scratchcard after winning a massive €100,000.

This lucky woman was after helping a close friend out by helping her to organise a party and her friend gave her a thank you card with a Money Multiplier x20 scratch card inside.

This cool customer won €100,000 on the scratch card more than two weeks ago. She also revealed how she kept her scratch card safe over the past fortnight.

"I just couldn’t believe it that I’ve won €100,000. I was busy in work so I knew it would be at least a week before I got up to National lottery HQ. Then I didn’t feel well last week so I decided to put it on the back burner.

"To keep the scratch card safe I put it in an envelope, put it under the carpet and put the bedside locker on top of it. I just prayed that the house wouldn’t flood or burn down!"

With her winnings, the Mayo woman said she is going to get herself a nice holiday away and pay off some bills. The Money Multiplier x20 scratch card was bought for our winner at The Village Pump in Batterstown, Co. Meath.