Cork family set for memorable Christmas following €500,000 EuroMillions win

It was a shopping trip with a twist for a lucky Cork family in Dublin today after they took some time out from their Christmas shopping to visit National Lottery HQ in Dublin city centre to pick up a cheque for €500,000 which they won in the EuroMillions Plus draw on Tuesday December 10.

The mother of the winning Cork clan who are now half a million euro richer has hailed the win as a dream come true for her family and she explained the madness which engulfed their home last Wednesday morning after they checked their lucky ticket.

I asked him if we’d won enough so that I could give up work and stay at home altogether.

She said: 'It was a typical morning in our house, everybody was getting ready for work and rushing out the door. Everybody except my husband who was in no rush whatsoever and he was at the kitchen table looking at his lottery ticket with his mouth wide open. He was a sight to behold! He goes to me, ‘I think we’ve won the EuroMillions.’ I probably thought we had won a few thousand euro or something and I asked him if we’d won enough so that I could give up work and stay at home altogether.

'Once we’d double and triple checked the ticket, we were dancing around the kitchen with pure joy. The difficult part was composing ourselves and heading to work for the day and not being able to tell any of our friends or colleagues that we had just won €500,000'.

This latest EuroMillions Plus win is the 32nd top prize win of €500,000 in Ireland this year alone and beats the previous record set in 2017, which saw 31 winners of this prize.

The lucky Cork family who wish to keep their win private purchased the winning ticket at the Amber Service Station in Fermoy, Co. Cork on the day of the draw.

After taking a week to let their huge EuroMillions win sink in, the Cork family told how they have taken some time out to make some long-lasting plans for their cash.

'We are going to pay off our mortgage in full which is a big weight off our shoulders. Knowing that whatever we earn at the end of each month is ours to do as we wish is a great feeling of freedom. We’re going to take a small few bob out of the pot for Christmas so we can enjoy it with the family. We won’t be going on a mad spending spree or anything but we intend to enjoy the celebrations over the next couple of weeks,' added the winning Cork mother.