Big money win forBuncrana couple

John Boy Doherty (Big Hill) won the substantial amount of cash after he texted in to a competition on the popular show on Friday night.

He was chosen from thousands of entries and brought on live on air, during which he was told he had won.

Poignantly, John’s win came not long after host Ryan Tubridy and journalist Tommy O’Gorman had discussed the recent tragedy at Buncrana pier. In light of this, Ryan told the show’s band not to play their usual celebratory music and added that the nation was thinking about Mr Doherty’s “friends and neighbours.”

Following John’s win, his phone began ringing and his wife Roisin told the ‘Journal’ how it “hasn’t stopped since.” She said, when John realised he was about to go live on the show, she was “more nervous than him.”

“We were watching the show and John decided to text in. About 11.20pm, we were sitting on the sofa and his phone began ringing. He said to me: ‘That’s a Dublin number.” He answered and they told him who they were. He was as cool as a cucumber - I was the nervous one in the background!”

Roisin said friends and family were all keen to offer their congratulations.

She said: “The phone didn’t stop ringing until about 2am and it started again at around 8am the next morning. We went out for a while on Saturday night and everyone was coming up to congratulate us too. It was lovely.”

Despite all the excitement, John then had to go back to work in England on Sunday. Roisin said the win “still hasn’t sunk in” and added they have yet to decide what they’re going to spend the money on. She quipped that their son Christopher and daughter Jemma were “hoping to get something.”