Charity can’t solve inequality, but Frances and Patrick Connolly are showing the super-rich how to use wealth for good
Because these are dark days in a bleak winter, Covid-stricken and Brexit-paralysed, let me introduce you to a couple who will raise your spirits. Frances Connolly and her husband, Patrick, were living in a rented terrace house in Moira, County Down when, on New Year’s Day 2019, they won the EuroMillions jackpot of £114.9m, one of the highest payouts ever. Since then they have engaged in one of the biggest lottery giveaways ever, according to Camelot, the lottery operator.
Frances describes to me what they did: first they drew up a list of more than 50 relations, friends and neighbours; they paid off mortgages, bought homes, secured futures. Then they moved back to Hartlepool where their daughters live and where they’d brought up their children. They bought a large bungalow with 5 acres outside the town – and set about giving away the rest by permanently depositing it in two charities, one for Hartlepool, one for Northern Ireland.
