Champagne corks popping in Castlebar as lotto excitement intensifies

The champagne corks have been popping today at Laura's XL at Hopkins Road, Castlebar.

It follows the announcement earlier that Laura Scriney, a member of a popular local business family, sold the winning National Lottery jackpot ticket of €19.06 million at her shop last weekend.

Members of the national and local media has descended on the location to cover the biggest ever National Lottery jackpot win in the history of the event.

Laura has been very generous with her time, giving interviews to the many journalists and broadcasters in attendance.

"It's wonderful to see such a great buzz around the town today. I wish the winners of the jackpot the best of luck and every happiness in the world.

"We sold an huge number of tickets last Friday and Saturday, so it's really impossible to tell who won it."

Fran Whearty of the National Lottery said they have spoken to the winner and advised them to get financial and legal advice before making any decisions.

He explained: "We are looking forward to paying out the money very soon. We don't know yet if it's a single winner or a syndicate.

"It is our intention to share more details in that regard over the coming weeks if the winners are happy to do so.

"We don't know if they are going to public at this point.

"But I am sure anybody who wins €19.06 million would like the time and space to gather their thoughts on how they are going to spend their money and we hope to have some lovely stories from them in the weeks ahead."