WITH the nation distracted by Lotto fever tonight's jackpot will be worth well over £4 million one of the National Lottery mysteries of recent times has finally been solved, discreetly.
A seven person syndicate tiptoed to Dublin yesterday and claimed £2,083,643 at the National Lottery headquarters. There it produced the much sought after quick pick winning ticket sold on August 27th at Keel Post Office on Achill Island. Each member of the syndicate got £297,663.
It was the ticket which that young man thought he had lost while on Croaghaun mountain in Achill with his girlfriend. Well, he didn't. The syndicate members knew all along, too. As hundreds searched the mountain, they "were amused", according to a Lotto spokesman.
The people at the National Lottery don't know why it took the syndicate so long to claim its winnings. But they couldn't resist the temptation to issue a statement announcing "Achill Mystery Solved By Secret Seven".
One of the winners did confess though to feeling "sorry for the lad who thought he had won". They are glad "that we have put him out of his misery.
People would be forgiven for assuming it was all part of a clever scam to extend Achill's tourist season.
A syndicate member explained, for instance, how much they "enjoyed the antics of a local character who collected 20 discarded £1 quick pick tickets and scattered them all ever Croaghaun mountain at the height of the search for the winning ticket".
On September 2nd, Mr Tom Cafferkey, owner of Lavelle's pub in Achill Sound, told this newspaper how locals were all talking about love on the mountain, and how, in the heat of the moment, the ticket fell from the young man's trousers.
Only Mr Cafferkey put it more graphically, and this is a family newspaper. On September 4th, it was reported that the mountain "had more trekkers and backpackers yesterday than any other day this year.
Speaking to The Irish Times last night, Mr Michael O'Malley, of Keel post office, said everyone there was "very happy" with the outcome.
"Achill did well out of it too," he said, and he invited calls tonight if the winning £4 million ticket is sold there. "We'll have another hilarious story for ye," he promised.
Tonight's jackpot could be an all time record. It will be worth close to if not more than the £4.43 million previous record, won by an anonymous Dubliner in May, 1995.
A Lotto spokesman has appealed to people to play early to avoid queues.
