Dark side of Irish lottery wins after millionaire said ‘I will never have peace’

Some 83,000 players in Ireland claimed prizes in Saturday’s Lotto and Lotto Plus draws with one punter winning than €1m — but previous lottery winners have been open about a potential dark side

Ireland has once more become home to a new millionaire after someone won more than €1million in the special Lotto Plus Raffle top-up prize.

The National Lottery confirmed the punter bought the life-changing ticket, which had a Raffle number of 8275, at Malone’s Londis on Dublin Road in Ardee in County Louth.

It also comes after a Cork family syndicate claimed a record-breaking €250million in the EuroMillions last July. Afterwards, the winners, who chose to remain anonymous, said in a statement: “We’re planning to remain in Ireland, and we promised ourselves that we won’t let this win change us.”

Despite promising not to let the riches go to their heads, some National Lottery winners have previously opened up about how the euphoric feeling of hitting the jackpot can soon lead to despair, and below we take a look at the darker side of it.

Margaret Loughrey

Margaret Loughrey, from Strabane, Northern Ireland, won £27million (approx €31m) in 2013.

She was 48 at the time and had just been to the job centre when she bought a Lucky Dip EuroMillions ticket. However, despite her fortunes changing, she later said it “destroyed” her life.

Despite struggling to cope with the wealth, she gave her siblings a million each and helped her community in various ways.

Margaret, who became known as Maggie Millions and had been previously getting by on £71 a week, soon felt the burden of the win.

Her brother, Paul, remembered: “I was the first to be told. We were close right up until the money. But from that day, I knew. I told the rest of the family, ‘This is not going to be good for Margaret.’

“Over the years, people have said to me, ‘It must be great to win all that?’ But I’d say, be very careful what you wish for, because it nearly ruined all our family. Not just Margaret.”

Despite giving the siblings money, Paul claimed Margaret struggled to cope, and she “chased” her four brothers and sister away. He said it was “very sad” and she “just didn’t want to know us anymore”.

She was sectioned months after her win, and two years later, she was convicted of assaulting a taxi driver and was ordered to do 150 hours of community service as punishment. In court, it was revealed she was “highly intoxicated” at the time.

Speaking in 2019, Margaret, who said she was just with just £5million by that stage, told the Sunday Life: “I will never have peace as long as I live. Even if I didn’t have a penny left, I won’t. I regret winning the lottery. Of course I do. I was a happy person before. I am a human being, and all it has done is destroy my life.”

She died suddenly in 2021. Her death was not treated as suspicious, and her family said she passed away of natural causes after an illness.

Her many acts of kindness to local charities became documented after her death, and she herself once told the BBC: “No point having £27m and being lonely. That can’t make me happy, that can only make me happy that everybody else’s happy, and so far everybody is absolutely delighted.”

Matt Rogers

Dublin farmer Matt Rogers was also once the record holder and was part of a family syndicate that won €175.4million in February 2019. He and his eight siblings remained humble and celebrated by getting a €12.50 carvery.

Matt, who bought a Peugeot SUV, also remained living in the farmhouse where he grew up, and stayed in an outhouse while renovations took place.

But despite sticking to his roots, he also hinted at a darker consequence of being a EuroMillions winner.

Shortly after the win, where they chose not to be anonymous, the farmer was surrounded by media at his farmstead, and speaking to the people gathered, he said: “I was happy at the start but now with all this… [people calling in]… it’s like being in prison. It’s just a lot to take in.”

After the five-word ‘prison’ confession, he then had another honest exchange, where he revealed his sister told him “not to say anything” — and when asked if he was joining a press conference with his siblings, he shrugged and said: “There will be something next week alright.”

Speaking last year, he advised the Cork winners to remain “grounded.” He told The Irish Sun, “I hope they enjoy the money. Hopefully, it [€250million] is well split up.”

Dolores McNamara

Dolores McNamara won €115million on the EuroMillions just over 20 years ago.

The part-time cleaner was in her local pub in Limerick when she made the discovery. Like the syndicates mentioned above, she decided to remain living in Ireland, and bought the stunning Lough Derg Hall for €1.75m in Clare.

She also bought six homes for her six children in the Limerick area, but there were dark consequences of people knowing about her wealth.

Dolores, now 64, was forced to invest in 24/7 home security after sinister kidnapping threats that led to her son and his family having to relocate to a private location. This was after a reported plot from local gang members who were allegedly planning an abduction.

In a rare interview with the Limerick Leader, Dolores once said: “The question that has been asked of me most frequently was how I felt about my win and my answer is still the same — I feel disbelief and shock.

“Buying a ticket for that Euro jackpot was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I’d actually gone into the shop to buy a top-up for my phone and just asked the lady for a Lotto ticket.”