Athlone ticket holder claims €250,000 lottery winnings

The lucky holder of an Athlone lottery ticket worth €250,000 has come forward and claimed the prize.

And before they received their cool quarter of a million euro bonanza, the winner said, "I checked the ticket again, just to make sure it wasn't all a dream!"

The Quick Pick ticket was sold at Mulligan's Londis shop and post office on the Roscommon Road on Saturday, June 1, and scooped the top prize in that evening's Lotto Plus 2 draw.

A National Lottery spokesperson told the Westmeath Independent today (Tuesday) that the ticket holder had collected their winnings.

The spokesperson also released some reaction quotes from the winner, who said that winning the prize on the Saturday evening of a bank holiday weekend made the weekend seem a lot longer than usual.

"I have never wished for it to be a Tuesday after a Bank Holiday so much in all my life!" said the prizewinner.

"After I checked my ticket on the phone after the draw, I couldn’t make contact with the claims department until they were back in the office after the weekend, so I really was counting down the days.

"It was a Quick Pick ticket that I won on and when I was checking it, I never even thought that I could be a big winner so you can imagine the shock when I got the message to say 'you’ve won big!'

"I was first on the phone to confirm my win that (Tuesday) and to say it was a huge relief would be an understatement.

"I had been hearing people around town talking about the big win at Mulligan’s, so as soon as I heard it confirmed that it was me, I was thrilled.

"My main focus since then has been keeping the ticket safe so I am delighted to finally hand it over and see the cheque.

"Before I actually got to the winners room, I checked the ticket again just to make sure it wasn’t all a dream. I never thought I’d be a top prize winner but here I am!" the lucky winner concluded.

The balloons were out at Mulligan's last week week, as its staff celebrated the sale of a lottery ticket worth a quarter of a million euro.

"There is already a great buzz amongst our staff, and the wider community are certain to be excited as we're a busy store here in Athlone," said the owner of the Londis shop, Martin Mulligan.

"We have a post office and a filling station so it's a real mix of locals and people passing through the town that we have popping into us every day."