The winner's of Ireland's biggest ever Lotto jackpot said it was "funny" watching TV reports about the search for the winner when they knew the ticket was theirs.
The ecstatic family, who wish to keep their win private, won the most coveted Lotto jackpot of all time when they won the €19.06 million prize with a Quick Pick ticket they bought at Laura’s XL store in Castlebar town in Co. Mayo.
A spokesperson for the family said: “’In the days after the draw, it wasn’t publicly known where exactly the win was, so it was funny to see the excitement growing when it was announced in Mayo and then in Castlebar.
"One night we were watching the news on TV when somebody in Mayo was interviewed, and they mentioned that they better check their tickets to see if they were the lucky winner.
"One of the family shouted at the TV, ‘' Don’t bother checking because we’ve got the winning ticket right here ’ . We all absolutely burst out laughing knowing that all this fuss was being made and we had the winning ticket all along.”
And the family plan to share the winnings with those close to them, as they continue to get their head around the life-changing money.
They added: "It’s such a huge sum of money so as a group, we will be taking as much time as we need to get the right guidance before we make any big decisions. While we all will have our own individual plans, the big thing we want to do is help our wider family, close friends and indeed our community in any way we can.
"Of course, we will be paying off whatever mortgages and loans that we have but we have also drawn up a list of people to help in our communities and we look forward to helping out some charities and organisations in the coming months. It really is such an exciting time in our lives and we can’t wait to get started to changing peoples lives.”
