I (Steve) remember when growing up my father would talk about having “The Winning Ticket” to the Irish Sweepstakes (but he never did). The Irish Sweepstakes was the world’s largest lottery done once a year to raise monies for a local hospital in Dublin. Since the hospital was a catholic hospital, priests were asked to smuggle tickets out of Ireland to the United States because NO one would check a priest going thru customs for smuggled goods. The tickets were then sold in the States, and you bragged if you had a ticket. Every year my grandmother would have one for my father, but alas never a winner.
Now for the story to come full circle; the hotel we stayed in while in Dublin was directly across the street from the buildings that use to house that old hospital.
And now you know the rest of my story.
Tags: barbara, george, irish sweepstakes, lottery
Thank you Steve for sharing this story….I can now sleep at night knowing the truth about the Irish Sweepstakes….:-) Seriously, this is very cool!
Great info, keep havin fun!
I remember that! I also remember asking Grandma how she was and she’d say she was so tired because she stayed up all night worrying about how to divide up her lottery winnings between all of her grandchildren!! Hope you’re having the time of your life