Lightning (almost) strikes twice for lucky councillor!

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley

Galway City Councillor John Connolly (FF), Chairman of CLG Bhearna, was inundated with well wishes last month after he scooped the jackpot (€10,700) in his own GAA Club’s lotto.

There was the odd sly dig on social media (wrongly) suggesting it was a ‘fix’, and some people made light-hearted references to that famous Fr Ted quote, “The last raffle I was at was very interesting, because the people who ran the raffle, actually won it!”; but the vast majority of messages were positive.

The win was pure coincidence, obviously, and most Barna GAA members were delighted that A) someone local had won it and B) that it was won by someone who buys lotto tickets every week and who has volunteered with the club for most of his life.

During a Facebook Live broadcast, after it emerged his winning numbers had been drawn on May 23, John said his success showed anyone could win the Barna lotto. His was the fourth jackpot win in six months.

“Please God we’ll keep giving away jackpots but we can only do so if people continue to buy, so keep supporting it,” he said.

His hope that the club would continue to give out jackpots nearly materialised sooner than he’d thought; and John Connolly himself was – again – nearly the beneficiary!

Two weeks after his four numbers (4, 14, 24 and 28) came up to land the jackpot, a “J Connolly” matched three of the four numbers in last week’s club lotto (3, 4, 14, and 24).

Just one number away from lightning striking twice and winning another ten grand!

(Photo: John Connolly, Chairman of CLG Bhearna, and Lotto Officer Murt Conneely. John won the club’s jackpot of €10,700 last month and nearly won it again two weeks’ later when three of his four numbers came up).

This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. See this week’s Galway City Tribune for more. You can buy a digital edition HERE.