THEY ARRIVED on a coach that had seen better days, but the 16 members of the syndicate who scooped the biggest prize in National Lottery history will hardly see a better day.
The 15 men from the Dan Morrissey concrete plant in Co Carlow alighted from the coach outside National Lottery headquarters in Dublin yesterday, dressed like a bunch of lads off to the dogs rather than newly minted suited and booted millionaires.
Audrey Kearns, the only woman in the syndicate, carried a big bunch of flowers and looked anything but jetlagged, having travelled back from Calgary on Sunday when she discovered she had won. She had only been in Canada for eight hours.
The 16 won €18,963,441, which equates to €1,184,215.06 each. In this day and age, it’s not what Tony Cascarino once called “happy-ever-after money”, but it is a sizeable fortune, and they have promised not to go mad.
“It’s a lot of money,” said Patrick Kearns, who intends to go back to work like the rest of them, “but it’s not enough to sail away. I’ll still have to earn a few bob to pay the rest of my bills.”
Inside a sweltering room, the 16 huddled into a corner surrounded by cameras and the press, while their partners looked on.
Syndicate leader Robert “Lewey” Lewis said all his young son wanted was a dog. “He can have a greyhound now,” he said.
Lewis said he had a hunch on Saturday night that they had won, but he had left the ticket at work because his wife had washed his trousers with previous lottery tickets in them.
So he climbed over the wall of the Dan Morrissey plant, discovered that his hunch was correct, and texted his colleagues.
One of the winners, John Doyle, said: “I was at home sitting on the couch and Lewey rang me and I couldn’t believe it. I nearly fainted. He said, ‘check those numbers’, and then I saw just one winner and I fell over.”
His son Aaron (22), the youngest member of the syndicate, was teased about being the most eligible bachelor around.
What was he going to do with the money? “I’m going to try and persuade Gareth Barry to stay at Aston Villa,” he quipped.
He said he was more interested in visiting his sister in Canada and brother in Edinburgh than in ripping up the backroads of Kildare in a souped-up sports car that might impress the ladies.
Patrick Kearns, father of Audrey and Thomas, recalled how he was out driving when he got the call telling him he had won the lottery.
“My knees were knocking the whole way home. It’s a good job the RSA [Road Safety Authority] weren’t looking at me.”
The joyous atmosphere was tempered when Ken Treacy, the only Kilkenny man in the syndicate, was asked what he would do with his money.
He said he would use the money to look after his wife, who is ill. “My first priority is to get her well,” he said.
The remark drew applause from the assembled crowd and a compliment from compere Miriam O’Callaghan.
“The reason why everybody loves this story is that you’re such genuine people,” she said. “It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.”
John Doyle was asked for his advice on how to win the lottery (the syndicate won with a Quick Pick). His said his advice was the same as that offered by God to a man who kept praying to win the lottery. “Do yourself a favour, son,” God responded, “buy yourself a ticket.”
