There were questions to be answered at the Centra store on Church Road in Ballybrack, Dublin today.
Is that Hunky Dory’s special offer good value? Probably.
Why are the staff holding champagne flutes and bottles of bubbly before noon? An €86.7 million Euromillions winning ticket was sold here earlier this month.
The identity of the jackpot winners - a syndicate which claimed its prize on Friday - remains a mystery but the shop that sold the ticket now has reason to celebrate.
Owner David Whelan receives a taxable “agent’s bonus” of €25,000 for his role in the State’s third largest jackpot win. Having never sold a big ticket previously, it was a “fantastic” feeling to have played some part, he said.
Who bought it?
“I know, but I wouldn’t tell you…They keep writing to us. Anybody who keeps putting money in an envelope will eventually tell you,” Mr Whelan said, before smiling and adding, “I haven’t got a clue”.
There’s a slim chance he ever will.
“[THE SHOP] is very busy but it’s very local. There’s not much of a passing trade but you get the odd car pulling up on the street. I’d say the real possibility is that it’s a local.”
Mr Whelan hadn’t checked CCTV footage to see if there was any evidence as “we don’t do things like that”. He hadn’t sought out who had sold the ticket either because “if we knew that, we’d know who the winner was”.
It certainly wasn’t store manager Simon Collier, who wasn’t working on the day in question and got a surprise when he started his shift.
“Two lads came in from the Lotto, I assumed it was routine, we got a new machine and I assumed it was something to do with that,” he said. “Then we were brought out to the back and it was a ‘do you want to tell them or will I?’ and I was just dazed.”
He had never been handed a glass of champagne in work on Monday morning, “but I might have to start doing it every week now”.
Locals were curious as to what was going on at the store. Some asked if those holding the champagne were the jackpot winners, and then minds started to wander.
“You’d know if it was sold around here,” said one man, who didn’t want to be named. “The people around Ballybrack can’t keep their mouths shut.”
Ballybrack resident Duncan Sheppard saw it differently. “There’s an awful lot of housing in the Ballybrack-Killiney area…so you wouldn’t know about it, no.”
Has anyone been showing wealth locally over the last few weeks?
“Up on that side (pointing behind him) you could find people coming down to Killiney in their 142 Range Rovers or whatever. There are a few people on that side who would come and shop in the village, and drive classy cars.”
The search for the €86.7 million jackpot winners continues but the net has narrowed, somewhat.
