Bachelor nets €250k as ‘Tubs' celebrates lucky town

By Kieran O’Mahony

IN a week when Ryan Tubridy came to Kinsale to celebrate the town’s lucky Lotto wins, another West Cork winner picked up a massive €250k cheque in Dublin on Tuesday.

The West Cork bachelor collected his winnings of €257,084 from the National Lottery HQ before dashing for a train back to Cork to clock in for a work shift that day. 

He matched five numbers and a lucky star in the Euro Millions draw on Friday August 4th after he bought his Quick Pick ticket at Easons in the Wilton Shopping Centre in Cork.

‘I have my feet firmly on the ground, even if the win hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I always have – I have the same friends now that I had in school and lead a modest life, so there’s no chance the money will change me,’ said the lucky winner.

He had no plans to take time to celebrate on Tuesday as he had swapped his shift at a local factory so he could come up on the train to collect his winnings and get back in time to start work.

‘I asked my sister to come up with me this morning on the train. I knew it would be an early start, but she was only too willing!’

The lucky winner said he plans to only share news of his good fortune with his mother and three siblings. ‘I will probably put a lump of it into getting a house of my own, a new set of golf clubs and after that, I don’t know. She (his sister) wants me to invest in a racehorse, but that’s certainly not going to happen!’

Ryan Tubridy broadcast his popular morning RTE Radio 1 show from Kinsale to celebrate 30 years of the National Lottery on Tuesday and later visited Kinsale Community School. 

The town has had six big Lotto wins totalling more than €8m over the past 30 years.

‘In addition, the Spar shop in the town sold the winning €7m Lotto ticket to local postman Pat Broderick in 2011 and just two weeks ago a Match 5 and Bonus prize of €219,204 was won from a Lotto draw with the winning Quick Pick tickets sold at the SuperValu store, so it is a lucky town indeed,’ said a Lottery spokesperson.