Family, friends and fans of Craig Breen remain in shock today.
The tragic news filtered through yesterday of the death during a test run in Croatia of the 33-year-old star of rallying who is from Slieverue.
Very quickly across South Kilkenny, Waterford and the wider world the tributes began.
Cllr Ger Frisby of Breen’s native Slieverue says “He’ll be hugely missed and he took the time to give back to his local communities when he was home for down-time from his rallying, it’s a huge tragedy for his family and all his friends and everyone involved with racing and all I can say is he’ll be greatly missed by all”.
He adds “It’s a terrible tragedy and I’d just like myself personally to sincerely offer my heartfelt sympathies to Craig’s family, his mother and father Jackie and Ray, his sister Kellie and the whole extended Breen family”.
While on KCLR’s The Way It Is his colleague Pat Dunphy said the whole area and the whole country took note of what he achieved but it’s an incredibly hard time now for his family.
He also said that it was hard work and skill that made Craig Breen a star of the world stage.
Hear the comments made to our Sue Nunn on last evening’s The Way It Is here: