Lottery fever hits Cootehill as Hannigan’s celebrate another big Lotto winner. Niall, Sean and Padraig Hannigan sold a €640,859 winning ticket in last Saturday night’s Lottery draw with a ‘Match 5 and the Bonus Number’. Here they are pictured on Monday afternoon and wish the lucky winner the best of luck with their big win.PHOTO: ALEX COLEMAN

‘It’s all down to the luck of the draw!’

Lucky Lotto winner makes contact with HQ.

Published: Tue 19 Oct 2021, 11:10 AM

Last updated: Tue 19 Oct 2021, 11:45 AM

There’s delight in Cootehill after the town’s latest Lotto success.

The lucky person was just one number away from winning the record jackpot of €19.06m.

Two tickets, one in Cootehill and one in Kildare, will share €1,281,718 and will now claim €640,859 each.

Lotto HQ has confirmed to The Anglo-Celt that the lucky person has made contact with them to claim their prize.

"Our claims team are currently making arrangements for them to claim their prize", they said but no other details are available at this time.

Hannigan's shop in the town has had a long run of Lotto success and added another win after Saturday’s draw.

Run by brothers Niall, Seán and Padraig, their customers have won over €9 million in prizes in National Lottery games since 2001.

“It’s hard to know [if it was someone local]”, laughs Seán. “There was a good steady flow of people in."

“It’s a sweet one alright. 2001 was the first one and this would be our ninth big one with some smaller ones in between”, he adds.

Previous wins for Hannigan’s include two Lotto jackpots worth £1 million in 2001 and another €4.8 million Lotto jackpot win in 2007.

Most recently, the well known shop again hit the headlines after they sold a winning EuroMillions ticket worth €256,158 to ‘The Little Rays Syndicate’ who, with 295 members, became the largest ever lottery syndicate to win a top tier prize in Ireland.

So what’s behind Hannigan’s lucky streak? “It’s all down to the luck of the draw,” laughs Seán.