Member of €175m-winning Naul syndicate plans to buy new bicycle

The winners of the €175m EuroMillions jackpot have collected their prize.

Member of €175m-winning Naul syndicate plans to buy new bicycle

The winners of the €175m EuroMillions jackpot have collected their prize.

The large family syndicate from the Naul in North Dublin scooped the jackpot on February 19.

They decided to keep their prize collection low key, and were presented with their winning cheque by National Lottery CEO, Dermot Griffin, yesterday.

Syndicate spokesperson, Gerry Brown, said the family are now looking forward to getting on with their lives after what has been an exciting week.

"This is life-changing for all of the family and we are absolutely thrilled," he said.

"We have spent the last week getting independent legal and financial advice, and our win is slowly sinking in.

We are a very close family and this is a dream come true for us. We want this win to change our lives in a positive way.

Appealing for privacy, the family said they'd do one radio interview and that was with RTÉ Radio 1.

The family's ticket was sold at Reilly’s Daybreak in Naul and the syndicate realised their good fortune when the ticket was checked on the night of the draw.

Mr Brown said his wife was watching the news on the night and she recognised three of their numbers. He spoke of the site being down so it took ten minutes before she could get back online to check the rest of the numbers.

He and his wife kept the ticket in their home and with the panic and excitement she worried that the house would burn down over night, but for safe keeping she put it in an Argos catalogue overnight.

The family syndicate has been up and running a couple of years. They do it once a week and the winning ticket was a €14 quick pick.

Michale Hayes (left) from the National Lottery sprays champagne as Les Reilly (centre) and the staff of Reilly's Daybreak in Naul, Co Dublin, celebrate selling the EuroMillions €175m winning lotto ticket.
Michale Hayes (left) from the National Lottery sprays champagne as Les Reilly (centre) and the staff of Reilly's Daybreak in Naul, Co Dublin, celebrate selling the EuroMillions €175m winning lotto ticket.

Mr Brown said that no one in the community told the media who the family were.

We live nearest the shop, all the reporters that were there, not one of them told them where we lived.

He said the family got on the bus to town. He laughed that when they waved at the cameras back home, they still weren't recognised as the winners.

A keen cyclist, Gerry said he's part of a cycling group and looks forward to having a new bike for that.

He said he doesn't think he'll ever move out of the Naul and he plans to look after his children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters.

"If you're happy there why would you go anywhere you don't even know? If I'd won it 30 years ago, it might be different... the best thing of the whole lot is what you can do for other people."

Mr Griffin, congratulated the family on the biggest Lottery jackpot ever won in Ireland.

"I am absolutely thrilled for the family and it was a pleasure meeting them in National Lottery HQ and to share their excitement and joy.

"Happy days like this is part of what playing National Lottery games is all about. This has been a historic few weeks for us with our biggest ever jackpot payout."

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