Summer celebrations as school syndicate claims €250,000 lotto prize

A syndicate made up of 18 teachers and school staff from Co Dongeal is celebrating more than the summer holidays after they claimed €250,000 in a Lotto Plus 2 draw.

The Craigtown syndicate scooped the top prize in the May 27th draw having bought their ticket in Doherty’s Centra in Moville, and collected their prize at the National Lottery's HQ in Dublin on Tuesday.

Syndicate manager Margaret Farren, explained the win came after a bit of drama: “I was holidaying on the North Antrim coast when I realized that I didn’t have a ticket for the draw that night.

“I figured that I would get our ticket at some point during the day, but as we got closer to the draw time, I was getting worried as I needed to get back to Donegal to get it. By then, it was becoming a mad dash to find the best way back.”

“As luck would have it, the ferry had just started running again the previous day, so I got that back to Greencastle and then made my way to Moville to get our ticket. I only had 15 minutes left to get our ticket at that stage,” she said.

Margaret continued that buying the ticket still did not go exactly to plan, even after making the journey: “I usually buy a ticket to cover eight draws but when I got to the shop, the machine was unable to print a ticket for that particular draw only.

“I would only ever check our tickets after the eight draws are up but since the ticket was a single draw, I checked the next day and to say it was utter disbelief would be an understatement.

“If it had have been a ticket for eight draws, there’s no way I would have known how much we won so soon after.”

A family syndicate, also from Co Donegal, also collected over €6.3 million after purchasing their winning ticket for June 17th's draw at McCarrons Village Shop at Quigley’s Point.

The jackpot winners shared the €12,747,756 jackpot with a Westmeath man has also collected his share of the prize.