Image source, National Lottery (Ireland)
- Author, Catherine Doyle
- Role, BBC News NI
The staff at what could be one of Ireland’s luckiest shops is celebrating “a dream come true” after selling their second winning EuroMillions lottery ticket.
Tom Brosnan, manager of G O Stores in Limerick, said staff are in shock after selling a jackpot ticket worth £7.7m (€8.9m).
It comes almost 20 years after the shop sold a ticket worth £77m (€112m) to Garryowen woman Dolores McNamara in 2005 – one of the biggest lottery wins in Europe at the time.
The lucky winner of the latest jackpot has yet to come forward.
Image source, National Lottery (Ireland)
“I think we must be the luckiest shop in Limerick,” Mr Brosnan told BBC News NI.
“The second time round makes it all the better.
“It’s been almost 20 years since we sold the winning EuroMillions ticket to Dolores but this win is just as magical.”
He does not know who the lucky customer is, but thinks they might have been “passing through”.
“I’d be in like a rocket if it was me,” he said.
“Whoever they are, we wish them the very best of luck.”
Ireland’s luckiest shops and villages
G O Stores is not the first in Ireland to claim the title of ‘luckiest shop’ when it comes to winning lottery tickets.
O’Neill’s, in Bridgend, County Donegal, closed in 2018 having held the title of being Ireland’s second luckiest shop, after only the General Post Office outlet on Dublin’s O’Connell Street.
It sold 12 jackpot-winning tickets between 1988 and 2018.
Meanwhile, Duleek, County Meath, claimed the title of luckiest village after there were two Irish Lotto jackpot wins there in October 2022 and March 2023, with both winning tickets sold within a few hundred metres of each other.
A spokesperson from the National Lottery (Ireland) said G O stores became one of the “most famous neighbourhood stores throughout Europe” after selling their first winning ticket.
They are appealing to players to check their tickets and for the winner to come forward to collect the “life-changing” prize.