THE door to the public library in Waterford city opens this morning at 11 a.m. Get over there quickly, and bring the £2 fee with you to join up. And bring friends and family for support, because there may be a bit of a scrum.
It has long been recognised that membership of the library at Lady Lane in Waterford is a route to happiness. But that is particularly true now, following the discovery that some mysterious benefactor has been placing lottery cards worth up to £20,000 in the library's books.
Up to yesterday evening 500 valid and virgin lottery scratch cards had been found among the library's collection of 70,000 books. As soon as word got around, the library suddenly became very popular, and about loo people were in the building yesterday searching through the volumes for unscratched cards.
The National Lottery said last night it was as mystified as anyone about what had happened. It was not a publicity stunt, the lottery said. It appeared that some big-hearted person had placed the tickets in the books for the benefit of the people of Waterford.
Amid the bedlam, library assistant Ms Loretta Kinsella said: "It's unbelievable. The search is on, the public is in, it's like a gold rush here. Children are finding tickets as we speak, some people have won £50 or £100. I've never seen anything like it. Friday afternoons are usually very quiet.
The cards, which retail at £1 offer instant prizes ranging from £2 to £20,000 and the chance to appear on the National Lottery's television game show. According to the lottery, about one card in nine wins a prize.
The news broke yesterday when a local paper reported a Cork man had found a card in one of the library's books and won £100. Local speculation has it that a lottery winner, perhaps one of the 70 millionaires which the National Lottery has created, placed the cards as a way to share his or her good fortune with the community. A darker theory is that someone is trying to atone for secret sins.
The National Lottery has done a little detective work on two of the cards found. Using the cards' serial numbers they have learned that the cards were purchased in two shops in Ennis, Co Clare, last April.
Could there be a new millionaire around Ennis who has suddenly decided to play Andrew Carnegie to the burghers of Waterford? The only recent big winners near Ennis are the 24 gardai in Ennistymon station, who shared £300,746 last January. A Garda Santa, originally from Waterford perhaps?
"No," said the garda on desk duty at the station, with the air of a man worth an extra £12,531. "There's nobody here from Waterford. It's definitely not one of us."
Examination of more of the tickets should at least reveal the buying pattern of the mysterious benefactor, but his or her identity may always be a secret.
The library staff will be on hand today in case someone gets this mad notion of borrowing a book.