The first Lotto millionaire of 1999, who won half of Saturday's jackpot, was so worried about losing her winning ticket before collecting the cheque that she wrapped it up like the Christmas turkey in the oven.
The woman from Newbridge, Co Kildare, who did not want her name divulged, bought the ticket, a £1.50 Quickpick, in Yvonne's shop in the town on Saturday.
The new millionaire, who is in her 40s, travelled yesterday to Dublin with her husband and nephew to collect the cheque for £1,095,803. She has two daughters, aged 18 and seven.
At the Lotto offices, she described what happened when she discovered she had won.
"We were at home on Saturday night when we discovered we had the winning six numbers - only my husband suggested that I needed the bonus number to win the jackpot. We had friends over to the house and we stayed up and drank brandy all night. On Sunday, we travelled to our local in Kildare town, a pub called Top Nolan's. The whole place knew we'd won so it was chaos. The ticket was in my bag and at one point, my bag was under a table about 10 tables away.
"I became so concerned about the ticket I brought it to the local Garda station and the two very nice gardai there told me that I should keep it safely myself until such time as I could collect the cheque. So that's how the ticket ended up in my oven, all wrapped up like the Christmas turkey," she said.
The family returned to live in Newbridge, their home town, only in September 1997. The winner said they had not made any plans as yet, although there might be a trip to Disneyland for her younger daughter.
The other half of the jackpot for the same amount had not been collected yesterday. The winning ticket was bought in Maguire's shop in Stone Park, Longford, on Saturday.