Moira couple pledge to share £115m Euromillions win with loved ones
They say 50 of their friends and relatives will benefit
Last updated 4th Jan 2019
A couple from Moira who scooped nearly £115m in the Euromillions jackpot revealed today (Friday) they intend sharing some of their vast fortune with 50 of their friends and family.
Patrick and Frances Connolly, were unveiled as the ‘mystery’ winners at a media conference in the Culloden Hotel.
The parents of three daughters, who scooped £114,969,775.70 on New Year's Day, have become the UK's fourth biggest lottery winners.
Mrs Connolly (52), said a list of about 50 benefactors from their jackpot win had been drawn up - none of whom knew what was coming to them.
"This is a massive sum of money and we want it to have a huge impact on the lives of other people we know and love as well as on our future too," she said
"This win gives us the chance to really make a difference for our family and friends."
Despite the colossal amount, she said their celebration was low-key.
“We don't really do excited,” she said.
“Perhaps I raised my voice just a bit at the time when I found out - but we celebrated with a cup of tea and a hug.
“This is a massive sum of money and we want it to have a huge impact on the lives of other people we know and love as well as on our future too. This win gives us the chance to really make a difference for our family and friends.
“I always hoped we would win the lottery one day, but when we did, it would be just our luck that lots of others would win on the same day with the same numbers too - never in my wildest dreams did I think we would ever win almost £115m.''
Mr Connolly (54), said the win felt “unreal''.
“We really didn't know what to do or how to react and we didn't sleep a wink that night,'' he said.
“We rang Camelot at 8am in the morning to verify the win. Then it started to dawn on us that it was true even though it still hasn't really sunk in.''
In the New Year's Day draw, 10 other players took home £1m in prize money each.
The winning main EuroMillions numbers were 01, 08, 11, 25, 28 and the winning EuroMillions Lucky Star numbers were 04 and 06.
The New Year's Day win follows a series of high-profile lottery prizes in recent years.
In July 2011, Colin and Chris Weir, from Ayrshire, became the biggest lottery winners in the UK, and across Europe, when they scooped more than £161m.
Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Suffolk, took home more than £148m in August 2012 while the biggest prize awarded in the country in 2018 was £121m, handed to an anonymous winner in April.
Last November, builder Andrew Clark (51), from Boston, Lincolnshire, discovered he had won £76m, six weeks after the draw.
Mrs Connolly is from Glebe in Co Tyrone and he is from Belfast. They met at a wedding in 1989 and have been together for 30 years.
They spent 25 years working in Hartlepool, in Co Durham, and recently returned to a rented property in Moira.
Mr Connolly ran a small business at one stage before going on to work for others. His expertise is in manufacturing.
Mrs Connolly worked as an educational programme co-ordinator and plans to do a PHD in clinical psychology.
They have three grandchildren, two boys and a girl, and three daughters, one aged 30 and twins aged 24.
One twin is in New Zealand doing a Masters degree. She will be travelling home and, during her stopover, has upgraded from a hostel to a modest hotel, her mother said.
Mr Connolly paid tribute to his "wonderful'' wife and family.
He said they had never lived an overly extravagant lifestyle, joking that could be about to change.
He said he was retired for now while he decides what to do in the future while his wife said: "I am retired - 100%.''
They said they wanted to focus on charitable work in the future, on job creation and doing good deeds.
After the press conference, the couple went outside the hotel and laughed and joked as they sprayed champagne and kissed for photographers.
At one point, Mrs Connolly joked with the assembled media pack that she only wanted images that showed her with one chin''.
She then expressed faux disappointment at one of her husband's kisses, remarking: I wanted a bit of tongue.''
The grandparents punched the air and waved their bumper cheque as the champagne flowed to toast their remarkable.
After spraying multiple bottles, Mrs Connolly queried with lottery advisers - who's going to clean all this up?'