It was an emotional day for the Walsh family from outside Glanmire as they visited the National Lottery Winners’ Room earlier this week to collect a Lotto prize worth €44,109, won by playing their father’s lucky Lotto numbers, just four months after his death.
Mother and son, Eileen and Anthony Walsh were joined at National Lottery headquarters in Dublin by their extended family as they collected the Lotto Match 5 + Bonus prize of €44,109 from the draw on Wednesday, 4th April.
Anthony revealed he decided to form a syndicate with his mother, Eileen, and to play his late father, Jimmy’s, lucky Lotto numbers after he died in December.
“It’s a bitter sweet day, but we know that our dad is definitely looking out for us,” commented Anthony. “There are seven of us in the family so his lucky Lotto numbers are a combination of our birthdays. He had been playing the same numbers for almost 30 years and although he did come close by matching 5 numbers a couple of times, it was always a dream for him to come to Dublin as a big Lotto winner. We’re fulfilling that dream here today,” he said.
The winning ticket, which was bought at the Glanmire Service Station, came to within one number of winning the huge €2.9 million Lotto jackpot.
“We had absolutely no idea that we had won anything! I called my mother the day after the draw to check to see if we had any numbers on the Lotto and she told me that we didn’t win. I brought the ticket into the local shop on Saturday to get it checked and all of a sudden I’ve been told that we’ve won over €40,000! Incredibly, that day marked four months since the passing of our dad and we just knew that he had a big part to play in all of this,” Anthony concluded.
