Limerick estate agents are licking their lips at the prospect of making one of their biggest sales yet as EuroMillions jackpot winner Dolores McNamara prepares to go house-hunting. The mother of six is vowing to stay in Limerick but will "splash out big", according to friends, on a new home when she finally relaxes the purse strings on her €115m lottery fortune in January.
She has had her €115m capital sum - all €115m of it - stashed away in a special "untouchable" account while she adapts to becoming one of Ireland's wealthiest people. With her €115m winnings to become available in less than three months, city auctioneers are already lining up properties they hope will attract the 46-year-old into making one of the city's biggest ever house property deals. Among the areas being looked at are the leafy North Circular Road and the Mill Road area in Corbally.
Dolores's wish to move into a new home has been heightened by the recent sinister turn of events that saw her son Gary become a target for an audacious kidnapping and ransom demand. The 26 year-old, his partner and their child left the city for a number of days after gardai communicated the intelligence they received to him, but he has since returned, although is keeping a low profile. From the outset, it was reported that Dolores would move out of her €170,000 St Patrick's Road home, which she is expected to pass on to a relative, but friends say that Limerick will remain her permanent address. "She is likely to spend some time in Turkey and elsewhere," said one.