Cork teachers who won €500k EuroMillions prize pay tribute to deceased syndicate member
Rebecca Walsh with the winning lotto tickets that won the €500,000 EuroMillions win for 64 staff members of St Colman's Community College, Midleton, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan
It’s not about the money — it's about the poignant story of grief, of loss and perhaps even some ‘divine intervention’ behind Ireland’s latest EuroMillions Plus jackpot.
There were tears of joy and sadness at St Colman’s Community College in Midleton, Co Cork, on Wednesday when it was confirmed that their 64-person school syndicate hit the €500,000 EuroMillions Plus jackpot in Tuesday’s draw.
But as news of their win was sinking in, their thoughts turned immediately to their former teaching colleague, Maeve Barry, who had been a member of the syndicate until her unexpected death last November, and to her sister, Carmel, who is on the teaching staff and is part of the syndicate.
In a remarkable twist of fate, it would have been Maeve’s turn to buy the tickets for Tuesday's draw.
School secretary and syndicate manager, Rebecca Walsh, who opted against playing the Lotto for the syndicate before Christmas, feeling it was just too soon after Maeve's death, decided to go ahead and buy the tickets in Tuesday's draw in Maeve’s memory, in her honour.
“It’s a bit surreal here today to be honest. We’re still trying to come to terms with the news,” Rebecca said.
“We do believe that it was Maeve looking down on us. She was definitely looking out for us.
“The money is not relevant. It’s the story behind it. We needed this lift. The town needed this bit of good news."
The syndicate, which includes teachers, admin staff, SNAs and caretakers, has had a long-standing arrangement that one person in the group would spend €35 on a 10-line Quick Pick for specific EuroMillions Plus draws.
It would have been Maeve’s turn to play on Tuesday.
Instead, Rebecca bought three tickets in Tim McCarthy News on Main Street in Midleton.
By Wednesday morning, news was emerging of a big winner in East Cork.
Rebecca checked their tickets using the Lottery app at 7am and was told that the third ticket — with the numbers 1, 12, 18, 40, 43 — was "a big winner".
"I knew we had won something big. I just knew it but there was no one in the Lottery offices to confirm it at that hour of the morning," Rebecca said.
So she headed to work, and it was 9.15am before she could confirm it with National Lottery HQ.
She made the phone call from the school office, surrounded by colleagues, who let out screams of excitement once the €500,000 jackpot was officially confirmed.
Each person will get just under €8,000. But as Rebecca said, it's not about the money.
They have signed the back of their winning ticket and it is in safe keeping until they make the arrangements to Dublin to collect their winnings.
Once the excitement settled, it was straight back to class and down to work for everyone at St Colman's, with a raft of teacher meetings organised for the afternoon.
A spokesperson for the National Lottery said they are liaising with the group on the arrangements for the handover of the winnings.
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