Picked up a ticket from a filling station on the Monahan Road

13:09, 10 Apr 2026Updated 13:12, 10 Apr 2026

Tim O’Donoghue, Store Owner, (centre) celebrates with staff May Cremin and Christian Murphy Cronin and Niamh O’Donovan (Sales Rep National Lottery) and Emma Monaghan (Comms Executive National Lottery)(Image: Dylan Vaughan Photography)

A Cork man received incredible news on Easter Saturday after winning €1 million – and had the longest bank holiday weekend of his life waiting for Lotto HQ to open again on Tuesday.

The lucky player nabbed a whopping €1,005,000 after buying an Ireland Only Raffle ticket at the Marina XL Filling Station, by the roundabout at Victoria Road and Monahan Road. The manager of the station said the team was “absolutely thrilled” for the winner – whose wife didn’t quite believe the news when he told her.

The lucky winner said: “On Saturday when the news broke about the win, I was 99.9% sure that I had the winning ticket, but I wanted to confirm it with the Claims team to be fully certain. Tuesday felt like a lifetime away, but I was delighted to finally speak to them and confirm I had won. I told my wife and she couldn’t believe it. I have played a few tricks on her in the past so it’s understandable!”

And while the sum might be life-changing, the winner added that he intends to continue living his life as normal – taking some time to adjust to the gigantic windfall.

He said that caring for his family is his priority, but that they might well treat themselves to a special holiday: “Looking after family is most important but apart from that, I am going to continue with life as normal and take some time to think and plan. We already have a holiday planned but this may be the perfect excuse to upgrade ourselves.”

At the weekend Tim O’Donoghue, owner of Marina XL Filling Station, said he was delighted to receive a call from the National Lottery team informing him that his shop had sold a big winner.

Tim said, “We’ve been proudly serving the Marina area for 23 years, and this is by far our biggest win to date. We’re a busy store with customers coming and going all day, so there’s huge excitement among the team knowing that one of those shoppers is now a millionaire.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have sold the winning ticket and want to wish the winner all the best in the future.”