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."

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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.