Cork dad joked that he always knew he'd win big Lotto cheque!

A Cork man, who won a €500,000 EuroMillions Plus top prize last Friday  has said he always knew he would win it at some stage.

The winning ticket was purchased by him, who is a lifetime National Lottery player at the Eason store in the Mahon Shopping Centre in Mahon, Co. Cork on the day of the draw and he and his family collected the cheque in Dublin today.

The winning dad who wishes to keep his family’s win private joked that as a lifetime National Lottery player, he was always convinced that he would win big one day. He says that their massive EuroMillions win will give him and his family a great deal of comfort for many years to come.

He said: 'I have always known that I’d end up at Lottery HQ collecting a big cheque. Today really is a dream come true for me and what better way to celebrate this win than to share it with my family. We certainly won’t be going mad buying any fancy cars or anything like that. The family are all at different stages of their own lives so having this prize to share equally among us will enable us to do our own thing and give us all the opportunity to make some nice changes in our lives,' he said.

Describing how they found out about their lucky win, one of the winning family members said:

'It was really weird. We were having a cup of tea in the kitchen the morning after the draw and my dad told me that he had a winning ticket in the EuroMillions draw from the previous night’s draw. And this was ever before we heard the news of the win in Mahon.

He was just absolutely convinced. I checked my phone and low and behold there was a winning ticket sold in Cork and he was laughing away to himself, he just knew it was him. We popped off to our local shop shortly after to have the ticket checked but in truth, we probably didn’t even need to check it because he was so certain it was our ticket. There’s certainly some truth in the power of positive thinking,' she said.