Top 5 Irish Lotto Jackpot Winners

May 9th, 2018

Since the first draw in 1988, the Irish Lotto has made countless millionaires the length and breadth of the country. For a national lottery from a relatively small country, the Lotto has also produced some impressively large jackpots over the years. Let’s take a look at the five biggest Irish Lotto jackpot winners to date.

 

1. Sat 28th June 2008          €18,963,441

The record for the largest every Irish Lotto jackpot pay-out was set ten years ago and has yet to be beaten. This prize was won by a syndicate made up of workmates from the Dan Morrissey construction supply company in Bennekerry, County Carlow. Fifteen men and one woman shared the prize, giving them each a nice pay-day of around €1.18 million to take home. Many of the winning syndicate were related, including a couple of sets of brothers, a father and son and a father and daughter – it’s what they call ‘Happy Families’!

 

2. Wed 14th April 2010           €16,717,717

The winning ticket went to an individual rather than a syndicate, this time from Dungarvan in Co. Waterford. Apart from that, details of the winner’s identity remain shrouded in secrecy as they elected not to go public with the win. The winner did phone the shop-keeper who sold him/her the ticket to express their gratitude, and shop owner Pat Whyte said that the winner was “thrilled, delighted and emotional”.  Without giving any further details away, Mr Whyte simply stated that the win “couldn’t have gone to a nicer person”.

 

3. Sat 23rd October 2010       €16,390,239

The third biggest winner of an Irish lottery jackpot bought his ticket in the Donnybrook Fair supermarket in South Dublin. The winner chose to remain anonymous as well, although when interviewed he did confirm that the winning numbers were ones he had chosen himself rather than Quick Picks. An occasional rather than an every-week lottery player, our Dublin winner was the 400^th millionaire to be created by the Irish lottery.

 

4. Sat 28th July 2007               €16,185,749

Carlow, Waterford and Dublin were where our first three winning tickets were bought, but fourth on the list were some winners from the Rebel County. Paul and Linda Cunningham picked up the winning ticket in Farranree, and it didn’t take long after the winning numbers were announced for bartender Paul to hand in his notice at the Blackpool pub he worked in. The Cunninghams were the only winners on our list to make their identities public but they quickly discovered that they did not enjoy the media attention which focused on their supposedly ‘lavish’ spending. Perhaps this reinforces the notion that anonymity is the best option for big lottery winners.

 

5. Sat 23^rd January 2016         €13,793,435

The fifth-placed Irish Lotto winners on our list are also the most recent, as the Belmullet family from Mayo picked up their cheque for almost €14 million at the beginning of 2016. The family remained anonymous but did give a brief interview for the media during which the wife said that normally they use ‘lucky’ family numbers but changed to a random Quick Pick on this occasion. It goes to show that ‘lucky’ numbers very often aren’t anything of the sort! Husband and wife were both working and had no intentions of quitting their jobs, but they did plan to take a few extra holidays abroad.

After reading that list of lucky lotto winners, perhaps you fancy your chances of hitting the jackpot? You can bet online with Lottoland here if you want to be in with a chance of picking up a giant prize.