A member of the family syndicate who won the country’s biggest ever EuroMillions jackpot of €175.4m has spoken about their win.
The nine-person syndicate collected the prize from National Lottery offices in Dublin yesterday.
Gerry Browne, husband of one of the syndicate winners, spoke exclusively on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme, their one media interview before appealing for privacy and getting on with their futures.
He said the past week had been hectic, fairly positive and "hard to believe it really".
His wife had been watching on TV for the number so n the night, but only got the first three, so she had to go online to get the rest, when she told him the numbers were up "I thought I was going to get an ambulance for her!".
When we saw jackpot was €175m, we asked ourselves "Is it real?" and "What if the house goes on fire and burns the ticket?"
She rang the family members in the syndicate that night and then for safekeeping "She put the ticket in an Argos catalogue on the table until the next morning."
The family syndicate has running a couple of years, they do it once a week and the winning ticket was a €14 quick pick, said Gerry.
The ticket was sold at Reilly's Daybreak in Naul - and Gerry and his wife only live 500 metres from the shop.
Reporters descended on the area to discover who the winners were, but Gerry had nothing but praise for the locals who kept tightlipped and "not one of them told them where we lived".
Asked if he got any sleep on the first night, Gerry said he had "about five or six vodkas so I slept pretty alright".
"I’d be pretty calm but it is hard to get your head round it. The whole week you’re with financial people, banks and solicitors.
"It’s a hectic week, you’d be glad when it’s over."
Nobody has missed work since the win, as Gerry said: "'We're all kinda retired... I'm probably one of the youngest".
As for spending some of the winnings, being a keen cyclist, Gerry said he is part of a cycling group and looks forward to having a new bike for that, which he said would be €14,000 or €15,000 on a good one "no bother".
As for moving home, he said he does not think he'll ever move out of the Naul.
"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".
Gerry said he planning to look after his kids, grandkids, brothers and sisters with the winnings..
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