The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
It may have been Hallowe’en night, but there were no black cats ruining one East Clare resident’s luck as Mary Nugent from Bauroe, Feakle stepped up to spin the wheel on RTÉ’s hit game show Winning Streak on Saturday night.
Mary scooped an overall prize of €49,000 cash and was among five players on the National Lottery’s Winning Streak gameshow on Saturday, who collectively won prizes to the value of €218,900.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Mary said she was thrilled.
“I was delighted. It was great and exciting. I bought the ticket in Paper Chase in Dunnes in Ennis. I was in Ennis at a concert the night they called out my name and my kids phoned me to tell me. I thought my kids were playing a trick on me. I told them they were lying. I was shaking. I came back home that night and a few neighbours came over,” she said.
After getting over the shock of being selected to go on the show, Mary said that it was a fantastic experience going up to record the show.
“It was well worth going up, the buzz and the excitement up there was great. We were all well looked after. I brought a bus-load of supporters up with me, all my grandchildren came up and they had great night. I won €10,000 on the first game and that was great,” she said.
Mary revealed that she would have been happy with that but she went on to win a further €9,000 on the other games before she was selected to spin the big wheel.
“I couldn’t believe that I got to spin the wheel. There was a half-a-million in it and people were telling me afterwards that it was very close that if it hopped into the next slot I could have one it. I won €30,000 on the wheel and I was thrilled,” she added.
While Mary hasn’t fully decided what to spend her winnings on, she is sure that it will be a nice Christmas in the Nugent household and that she can be sure that the money will be put to good use. “I don’t know what I’ll do with it yet. I need to do a few jobs in the house and I’ll do that first. I’m sure I’ll find plenty to spend it on, or my grandkids will,” Mary concluded.
