Christina Burke, from Letterkenny, was due to give birth last Sunday but decided to go shopping the day before.
She decided to purchase a lucky bag from Auntie Nellie’s Sweet Shop in Letterkenny as it was running a competition to win one of the golden game passes.
Christina purchased four of the €2 lucky bags and to her delight found she won the ticket.
A delighted and blooming Christina told Donegal Daily “I just couldn’t believe it when I open the lucky bag. I almost went into labour there and then I was that excited.
“I went home to my husband Aidan and he thought I was starting my labour because I was so red and flushed. I was just in so much shock that I won.”
Christina, who is a nurse at Letterkenny General Hospital, finally found herself in labour yestrday where she gave birth to her third baby girl.
Christina says she had thought about the name Nellie after Auntie Nellie’s sweet shop but has decided to call her new arrival Laoise.
She says she won’t get to the game herself but will watch it in Donegal with husband Aidan and daughters Tara, 4, Caoimhe, 2 and Laoise, three days.
Instead she is kindly giving the ticket for the Cusack Stand to her brother Francis’ girlfriend Brid.
Despite only giving birth a few hours earlier, Christina turned up in person to collect her ticket today from Auntie Nellie’s owner Enda Heneghan.
Businessman Enda says demand for the lucky bags was staggering, so much so that he was forced to put another All-Ireland ticket in a secret lucky bag.
“It was a great competition and I’m just sad that we didn’t have more tickets to give away.
“We sold more than 2,000 of the lucky bags which was amazing.
“We even had calls from a couple of business people who wanted to buy ALL of the lucky bags but we would never have done that,” he said.
A second All-Ireland ticket was won by well-known butcher Stephen Shields from the Oldtown in Letterkenny.
“I sent one of the lads down for a lucky bag and I just knew it was the real thing when I opened it. I’m delighted,” he said.
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