Mary Corish, Sean Grant, Alan Murphy and Denise Doyle give the thumbs up as Murphy’s SuperValu sold the winning ticket of the 2.5 million euro lotto jackpot. Pic: Jim Campbell

THERE WAS great excitement in Rosslare Harbour over the weekend as it emerged that Ireland’s newest millionaire bought their ticket in the local shop, Murphy’s SuperValu.

Proprietor of the shop, Alan Murphy said he and all of the staff were over the moon when they heard the news.

“I got a phone call at about 10 p.m. from the National Lottery on Saturday night. You usually don’t want to be getting calls at that time but on this occasion it was fantastic news and they told me we had sold the winning ticket for the €2.5 million jackpot.”

The ticket, which is believed to have been a quick-pick, was bought on Saturday afternoon in the local supermarket but Mr. Murphy said they had no idea who the winner was.

“We don’t know. It could be anyone. It could be a holidaymaker down from Dublin for the weekend or it could be someone who was heading out on the ferry. There’s an awful lot of speculation locally but it hasn’t been claimed yet.”

“Everyone is very curious and there’s plenty of banter going on, on social media. It’s given the whole area a great lift and people are delighted for whoever has won it but there are hopes that it’s someone local.”

Mr. Murphy added that he had posted the news of the shop’s sale on Facebook on Sunday and it had received 25,000 hits in a little over 24 hours: “The population of Rosslare isn’t even that big so it’s massive for us and great exposure.”

The shop has had winners in the past: a Lotto 5-4-3-2-1 ticket won one lucky punter €190,000 while a National Lottery Scratch card also secured a win of €1 million for the lucky holder, but both wins date back a few years, Mr. Murphy explained.

This was the shop’s first jackpot winner and, no doubt, speculation and banter will continue until the big win is claimed.