By Cian Molloy - 31 December, 2017
A retired priest, at home on holiday from Florida, is substantially better off since he picked up €500,000 in winnings from the National Lottery offices in Dublin on Friday 22nd December.
Mgr John Delaney says he will share his prize fund with those in need – and this is something he has done previously with other lottery wins. Indeed, he joked that God must be listening to him as previously, more than 30 years ago, he won £15,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes and he has won amounts in the region of US$3,000 and $5,000 in US lotteries.
“I suppose you can say I am lucky,” Mgr Delaney said in a statement issued by the National Lottery operator. “But I have always had a policy of sharing my luck around.
“That is something that my late mother taught me and something that was also drummed into me when I was a young priest by a Bishop. I am a big believer that what goes around comes around. This is a huge amount of money and I look forward to giving some back.”
Mgr Delaney is from Crossboyne, near Claremorris, Co Mayo. He studied for the priesthood at All Hallows, Dublin, the seminary that prepared Irish priests to work with emigrant communities overseas. After his ordination in 1964, he went to serve in the Archdiocese of Miami, with most of his career spent in Fort Lauderdale. Among his parishioners were the Kennedy family and Mgr Delaney was especially close to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of President John F Kennedy.
Mgr Delaney bought his winning ticket, a ‘quick pick’, in Donnybrook Fair in Malahide.
