A GAA club giving away a new €200,000 home in Donegal has gone global with record interest from around the world just 24 hours before the draw is made.
The St Eunan’s club in Letterkenny is running its TENTH house giveaway with proceeds from the €100-a-ticket draw tomorrow night going towards developing their grounds in the town.
And at one stage yesterday there were queues outside a local estate agent’s office which has become the club’s headquarters for the weekend.
“The deadline for buying a ticket is 9pm this Sunday and there’s been a frenzy of activity both locally and from all over the world,” said Draw co-ordinator and local solicitor Ciaran Haran.
“We set up a dedicated website at gaahousedraw.com and sales of tickets there are coming in thick and fast. This morning (Saturday) we could see purchases from all over Ireland, across England and Scotland and also from New York, Boston, Chicago, Melbourne, Sydney and even one from Bangkok.
“If anyone wants to see where the Donegal diaspora is, they just have to look at where our tickets have been sold in the past few days. It’s incredible. We even sold tickets in Brazil and Argentina a couple of weeks ago.”
The draw takes place at Letterkenny’s Mount Errigal Hotel tomorrow night (Sunday).
“We will be uploading the results on social media so that everyone who has bought a ticket locally in Donegal or around the world can log on to see if they’ve landed the big prize – a brand new 3-bedroom A-rated home in the heart of Letterkenny.
“We have some great runners-up prizes including a Med cruise too.”
For club member and estate agent Brendan McGlynn, queues outside his office have caused a stir.
“We’ve certainly never had a queue for a free house,” he laughed.
“The whole town across our two parishes in Letterkenny has come together because St Eunan’s is at the heart of the community and people know any profits we make on ticket sales goes right back into the club. That’s the GAA ethos.
“We’ve been humbled by the support we’ve had from GAA families across Ireland and around the globe. There are more than 30 clubs across Donegal and members of every single one of them have bought tickets. GAA people support GAA people.”
The winner of the last draw – in 2017 – was Justin Brett. The County Sligo software developer bought two tickets online from his then home in London.
Tickets can be bought for the 2019 draw up until 9pm on Sunday on gaahousedraw.com
The new three-bedroom home – complete with solar panels – is situated in a new housing development at Rann Mór, a five minute walk from Letterkenny town centre.
