Dolores McNamara
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Dolores McNamara (born Dolores O'Donovan, 13 January 1960 in Blackpool, England, but resident in Limerick, Ireland from infancy) held the record for Europe's largest individual lottery jackpot win between 29 July 2005 and 8 May 2009. Her €2 quick-pick ticket for the 29 July 2005 EuroMillions drawing won her a nine-week rollover jackpot of €115,436,126, which she received as a tax-free lump sum, making her Ireland's 72nd wealthiest person.[1] Numerous newspaper and magazine articles and profiles made her a well-known persona, especially in Ireland.
McNamara's standing as Europe's largest individual lottery jackpot winner was superseded on 8 May 2009, when a 25-year-old woman from Majorca, Spain, won a EuroMillions jackpot of €126,231,764.[2]
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[edit] 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.[3]
Dolores O'Donovan was 17 when she married 27-year-old local bricklayer Adrian McNamara on 4 June 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.[4]
[edit] EuroMillions win
McNamara had purchased the ticket at Garryowen Stores, a convenience shop half a mile from her home. As news of her lottery win became public, she and her family fled for privacy to the Crown Moran Hotel in London. She returned to Dublin to claim her prize five days after the drawing, at the Irish National Lottery headquarters in Dublin.
In the weeks after her win, McNamara's lifestyle and history came under intense scrutiny in the Irish and British press. Citing details from her social welfare records, one newspaper accused her of having committed welfare fraud by claiming unemployment benefits while she was working. When officials at the Department of Social and Family Affairs investigated these leaks, they discovered that 72 civil servants had illicitly accessed McNamara's welfare records electronically in the days following her windfall.[5] McNamara was never charged in connection with any 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.
[edit] Life after EuroMillions
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 (560 m2) hilltop home near the village of Killaloe, County Clare.[6] The family had been plagued by threats of abduction since the windfall, and their new home was fitted with world class major security system for their protection.[7]
