Winners collect fifth-largest jackpot

Eight men from Dublin, all in their 20s, collected last Saturday night's Lotto prize of almost €7 million at the National Lottery…

Eight men from Dublin, all in their 20s, collected last Saturday night's Lotto prize of almost €7 million at the National Lottery's offices yesterday afternoon.

The syndicate of work colleagues from a petfood-processing plant in Ballymount only discovered they had won the top prize of €6,974,040 when one of the members checked the numbers after work on Monday evening.

Purchased at a Tesco shop on Ballyfermot Road last Thursday, the €8 ticket's numbers were individually selected by a group member, Mr Graham Finnerty.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Finnerty said: "It hasn't sunk in yet, so I haven't a clue as to what I'll do with it, but I'm not going to let it go to my head."

It was confirmed last night that the money is to be split an even eight ways among all the syndicate members, each receiving €871,755.

Last week's prize was the fifth-largest jackpot in the history of the lottery.

Six of the eight winners were presented with a cheque by the National Lottery chairman, Mr Donal Curtin, yesterday afternoon.

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