Dolores McNamara

Dolores McNamara (born January 13, 1960 in Blackpool, England, but resident in Limerick, Ireland from infancy) is an Irish woman who became famous when winning the largest individual prize in European lottery history. On July 31, 2005, her €2 quick-pick ticket for the transnational EuroMillions lottery matched the game's five winning numbers and two "lucky stars," winning her a nine-week rollover jackpot of €115,436,126 and making her Ireland's 72nd richest person. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/07/ndolor07.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/07/ixworld.html telegraph.co.uk] ] McNamara, who had purchased the ticket at Garryowen Stores, a small convenience store half a mile from her home, claimed her record-breaking prize five days later at the Irish National Lottery headquarters in Dublin. The subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles and profiles, McNamara is a well-known persona, especially in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Background and Family

The eldest child of Desmond and Elizabeth O'Donovan, she was born in the English seaside resort of Blackpool where her father was employed as a tailor at a local hotel. The O'Donovan family returned later that year to their hometown of Limerick, where Dolores' sister Deirdre was born in July 1961. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20050814/ai_n14884544 findarticles.com] ]

Dolores O'Donovan was 17 when she married 27-year-old local bricklayer Adrian McNamara on June 4, 1977. Between 1978 and 1992, the couple had six children, three sons and three daughters. At the time of McNamara's lottery win, her husband was recuperating after coronary artery bypass surgery, while she was working as a part-time cleaning lady at Limerick Youth Centre, having recently left her job on a pharmaceutical factory production line. [ [http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/8-7-2005-74366.asp buzzle.com] ]

Life after EuroMillions

In the days following McNamara's lottery win, her Limerick bungalow was surrounded by reporters, and she and her family fled for privacy to the Crown Moran hotel in London. Her lifestyle and history came under intense scrutiny in the press. One newspaper, citing details from her social welfare records, accused her of having committed welfare fraud by claiming unemployment benefits while she was actually working. When officials at the Department of Social and Family Affairs investigated these leaks, they discovered that at least 72 civil servants had illicitly accessed McNamara's welfare records electronically in the days following her windfall. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/ireland/article570540.ece timesonline.co.uk] ] McNamara was never charged in connection with the alleged fraud, but the civil servants were reprimanded and the case provoked public debate about the security of personal information stored in governmental computer systems.

For nine months after her win, McNamara continued to live in her modest Limerick bungalow. In April 2006, she moved with her husband and two youngest sons to Lough Derg Hall, a €1.7 million, 6,000-square-foot hilltop home near the village of Killaloe, County Clare. [ [http://www.independent.ie/national-news/new-17m-mansion-for-jackpot-dolores-128857.html independent.ie] ] The family had been plagued by threats of abduction since the windfall, and their new home was fitted with a major security system for their protection. [ [http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16592986&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=lotto-millions-exclusive--the--77million-curse-name_page.html mirror.co.uk] ]

References

ee also

*Lottery jackpot records