A couple in Westmeath raffle their public house after it failed to sell at auction.
Des Earls is the first publican in Ireland to put his bar and lounge on O'Connell Street in Athlone up as a raffle prize.
Only raffle ticket holders were permitted entry to the pub today, for a drink on the house before the draw took place.
Tickets were £250 each and sold quickly, to both individuals and groups from all over the country. Enquiries even came from abroad, but Des and Margie Earls decided to limit the number of tickets to four hundred as,
They'd wanted to keep the odds within reason.
The Dean Crowe Hall was packed this afternoon and there was great excitement when Margie Earls drew out the winning ticket, and Des Earls announced that the winner was local man and garage manager James Fox.
James Fox, who thought his chances so slight that he was not even present for the draw purchased the ticket jointly with his brother Paddy and their friend Doc Carroll of the Royal Blues Showband.
Still somewhat overwhelmed he arrives in O'Connell Street where RTÉ News reporter Caroline Erskine asks James Fox how he feels on becoming a a publican, to which he replies
I really don't know.
After tonight Des Earls and his wife Margie will retire on the money raised by the raffle. The couple plan to take a summer holiday to Russia. After thirty years in the pub trade they intend to take things easy,
Hopefully what I made today will keep me going.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 1 April 1982. The reporter is Caroline Erskine.
