Carrickmacross lottery winner collects cheque for €300k

A lucky Lottery punter in Carrickmacross has collected a cheque for €300,000 after winning the top prize on a €15 All Cash Gift scratch card recently.

The winner was jumping for joy after purchasing their winning ticket at Cassidy’s XL store on the Dundalk Road in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.

“At first I thought it was €30,000 that I had won and then I started counting the zeroes,” said the winner. “You never think you’ll be a top prize winner so I just don’t think that registered with me immediately.

"I was in total shock! I wouldn’t even consider myself a very lucky person to be honest but sure, here I am in the winners’ room so that might be changing now. I am absolutely over the moon and when the win finally sinks in, I’ll start making plans for what to do.”

There were also celebrations at the Carrickmacross store after news broke that they sold the winning €15 All Cash Gift scratch card. Anita Cassidy, who owns the shop with her husband Shane, said the entire team in-store was delighted to hear the news.

“This is the biggest prize that we have ever sold so there’s been great excitement about the win,” she said. “We had a Lotto Plus 2 win worth €250,000 back in 2017 so this one is even bigger again. It’s great news for both the store and the community. We wish the winner the very best with their win and hope they are enjoying it!”

Meanwhile, last night’s Lotto draw saw over 61,000 players nationwide win prizes across the Lotto and Lotto Plus games. As there was no outright winner of the €5.2M jackpot up for grabs, Saturday’s jackpot is now set to roll towards an estimated €5.8M.

Lotto players dreaming of being the next big winner are reminded that tickets can be purchased in-store, through the National Lottery app or at www.lottery.ie ahead of the 7.45pm cut-off time for sales on Saturday evening.

Nearly 30c in every €1 spent on National Lottery games goes back to ‘Good Causes’ in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish Language.

In total, more than €6bn has been raised for’ Good Causes’ since the National Lottery was established 36 years ago. In 2022 alone, €259.5M was raised for local ‘Good Causes’ in communities across Ireland.