If you know a Mary, keep her close.

Irish people are known the world over for being 'lucky'. We're not sure if there's any evidence to back up this claim... As it happens, it appears that when it comes to winning the lottery, we aren't that lucky after all. According to research from the leading online lottery bettiBut don't let that put you off. Especially if your name is Mary. ng company Lottoland, Irish winners rank only 58th out of 97 nationalities. The same survey has found that if your first name is Mary, you're more likely to win the lottery in Ireland than anyone else. Now in fairness that might be down to the fact that Ireland has A LOT of Marys. Lottoland have looked at all winners since launching in the Irish market in 2016, and found that the luckiest first name is Mary. Shane, Peter and Michael are also quite high up on the list, with Alan being the luckiest male name. The same survey also found that Irish males aged 36-40 are the most common winners. It turns out that Swords is the luckiest place in Ireland when it comes to online lottery bet winners. So if you're friends with anybody named Mary from Swords, make sure you get her a good birthday present this year just in case... It also put to bed one of the oldest myths of all time, that the number seven is lucky. It turns out that the most commonly winning number is 11, with 7 coming in second place. The top 10 most commonly played lottery numbers globally are as follows:

1. 11
2. 7
3. 17
4. 27
5. 19
6. 23
7. 12
8. 13
9. 9
10. 18

Lottoland Ireland’s Graham Ross said:

“No doubt like myself, plenty of Irish people will be surprised with the revelations from our Lucky Lottery research. Yes, from the crash of the Celtic Tiger, innumerable sporting failures and even our recent Eurovision woes, we’ve probably long known that our national luck isn’t all its cracked up to be but the revelation that we’re lagging in 58th place was an eyebrow raiser." "The luckiness of the number 11 globally will have rung a bell for many sports fans, particularly those Irish rugby supporters who enjoyed the sight of 6 Nations top scorer number 11 Jason Stockdale crossing the whitewash so regularly this Spring. And as for the national results, Irish men can be suitably smug about what the findings have revealed, especially all those Alans from Swords who can’t expect increased attention out on the town this weekend!"

So with all of this new information, go find your favourite Mary and be nice to her hun.