'Historic' €250m EuroMillions win has put Cork city area 'on the map'

The manager of Clifford’s Centra in Cork city has said their sale of the winning EuroMillions ticket last month has put Shandon “on the map”.

A family syndicate, who purchased the winning lottery ticket at the store in June, officially claimed their €250 million jackpot this week.

While the winners have chosen to remain anonymous, they described their experience as “surreal”.

Detailing the day they purchased their ticket, the winners said that it all began with a simple errand in Cork, leading them to stop at Clifford’s Centra.

Recalling the moment they found out they had purchased the winning ticket, the family said they were watching the news when they heard that an Irish player had won.

“I got my ticket and scanned it on the National Lottery app, and a message popped up, ‘You’ve won big, contact the National Lottery’,” they said.

“I must have checked it four more times - I just couldn't believe my eyes.

“I ran upstairs to my wife, who had just gone to bed, and woke her up.

“We sat at the edge of the bed, saying ‘oh my God’ over and over,” they added.

“We were in total shock, complete disbelief."

Looking to the future, while the family plans to remain in Ireland, they are looking at going on a family holiday, purchasing a holiday home “somewhere in the sun” and at purchasing homes for their children.

“I don’t think the news has really sunk in yet - we promised ourselves that we won’t let this change us,” they added.

“I'll still be having my favourite ham and cheese sambo for lunch every day.” 

 Simon Champ, who is the manager of Clifford’s Centra on Shandon Street, said that he hopes the milestone win will be a topic of discussion amongst Cork historians in years to come.

“There’s been a lot of talk and excitement amongst our customers, to this day we still have people asking if we know who it was,” said Mr Champ.

“People are enjoying the bit of craic and fun around the speculation.

“We’re very busy for lotto anyways, but we have had a couple of people who’ve made a point of coming up here to buy a ticket who maybe wouldn’t have normally.

“It’s been fabulous for our store, but I think it’s also been great for Shandon Street and North Cork as well - it’s really put us on the map,” he added.

“This is a historic EuroMillions win. It’s going to become part of the history of Shandon Street and maybe in 50 or 100 years time, when they’re doing historical tours around here, they’ll point at the shop and say that’s where the winning ticket was sold.”