A married couple from Carrigaline, Co Cork, became the latest Lotto millionaires when they collected a cheque for £2.1 million at the National Lottery headquarters in Dublin yesterday.
Mr Tadgh Cronin (38) bought a £1 Quickpick ticket while on a lunch break from his job as a stores clerk at the Blood Transfusion Service's blood bank in Cork. His wife, Ms Ann O'Leary, also works at the blood bank as a laboratory technician.
They only discovered that they were the winners the day after the draw when a colleague at work mentioned that the winning Lotto ticket had been purchased in a local shop.
The couple have three children: Eva (13), Joey (6) and Sam (5). Joey and Sam, entirely unperturbed by the win, watched Batman in the office of a National Lottery executive while their parents spoke to the media. Eva, a keen ballerina, hopes to visit London on the proceeds of the win to see the Kirov Ballet.
Tadgh Cronin says one of the biggest problems he and Ann will face is making sure the win does not spoil the children. "They're going back to the same school in September. They have a cushion behind them that very few other children would have, but I'll keep them on the straight and narrow".
Tadgh and Ann have decided to take leave of absence from their jobs. As Ann put it: "Thinking of going into work in the morning when you're a millionaire would be rather strange, wouldn't it?"