A recent winner of the UK National Lottery has decided to give away almost every penny that she won to the town she grew up ‘for the good of the town’. The winner in question is Margaret Loughrey, who won just over $30 million on the recent Irish Lotto Jackpot, and immediately knew that she would be giving it away to charity.
The generous woman comes from Strabane in Northern Ireland & at the time of her Irish Lotto jackpot win Margaret was unemployed & living off of the dole.
Speaking to her local newspaper, Margaret told the reporters that of the money she won she has already given away ‘just over half’ and insinuated that the remaining $15 million will be used to turn around her much loved, but derelict home town.
While many her place would spend their lotto jackpot money on a number of fancy cars and vacations all around the world, the selfless 47-year-old plans to invest the money in local projects – provide jobs and recreational activities for the local people.
One of the first projects that Margaret would like to take on with her new found Irish Lotto millions is to buy an unused 22-acre business park site on the outskirts of the town with the intention to fix it up and turn it into a thriving business park. Unfortunately, Margaret’s plans for the business park were not met with the response that she was hoping for and the plans were rejected by the local council and Invest NI – the body that decides on large scale investment projects in and around Northern Ireland.
Margaret had already purchased the dilapidated Mill in Sion which is just beyond the border of Strabane with a knock down price of $1 million with the intention to completely revitalize the area and overhaul the sixty-two-acre complex on the river banks into a tourism and leisure destination for all.
The plans included a new designed museum with the hopes that it would focus on the north west’s industrial heritage as well as some football pitches and a cricket pavilion for local people to use.
Her plans for the Invest NI site on Melmount Road should have created 50 to 60 units, built there to try and encourage blue collar jobs to return to the area in a number of different industries including metalwork, painting, knitting and woodwork – All industries that have seen sharp decline in the area and the last 20 years.
Irish Lotto Millions Can’t Buy You Everything
Despite her disappointment in the rejection from the Local Council, Margaret has kept pushing on with her dream of transforming the town around her with her Irish Lotto millions. Indeed, Margaret is now the director of 9 separate companies that she has set up in the past year. It’s going to be hard to knock down Margaret – the combination of desire and the money to back it as a powerful combo!
What makes Margaret’s story even more impressive is just a 6 weeks ago she was living on government handouts to eat and claiming the equivalent of $75 a week.
Despite her millions in the bank, Margaret has certainly not forgotten what it is like to live without money and this is why she is determined to give back.
Irish Lotto Winner Update:
Margaret may have been all about giving back to the community but it appears that her treatment from the Council may have gotten too much for her as the last year has been anything but plain sailing for our lotto millionaire.
Recently ordered to complete 150 hours of community service due an alert action with a taxi driver that led her to plead guilty to assault. According to her lawyer, this was a one-off incident and her character should not be extrapolated from this unfortunate event.
We agree – we all make mistakes, but not all of us give away 95% of our fortune to the local community. All thanks to the Irish Lotto.
