Over 60 Volkswagen campervan enthusiasts got together to say a final farewell through video to a much-loved friend whose funeral they couldn’t attend because of Covid-19 restrictions.
The video was made to say goodbye to ‘legend’ Mike O’Neill, a fellow Volkswagen lover who was the owner of The Railway Tavern in Camp, Co Kerry and the home of Campfest, an annual gathering of VW campervans for the past 16 years.
The touching video sees friends all over the country standing in front of their vans and holding the word 'Legend', a reference to their dear friend who died suddenly in recent weeks at the age of 71.
Enthusiast Darren O’Brien from Navan, Co Meath and friends compiled this video to show how the camper van community felt they had to do something to show how important he was to them.
Darren, who has a 1979 purple VW van and hundreds of models of them, first met Mike when he pulled up in the pub carpark 17 years ago.
“The minute I went into the pub and saw all the memorabilia over the walls and a VW in the Kerry colours, I knew I was about to make a friend for life.
“And so I started holding annual gatherings where upwards of 75 camper vans used to come from all over Ireland and parts of the UK.
“There are still 100s of VW campervans on the road in Ireland and up to 250 active members of the online forum. We were all heartbroken to hear of Mike’s death and even more devastated knowing we couldn’t go to his funeral because of Covid-19 restrictions.
“So we made this video for him and his family to know how special he was to us and what a great character he was.
“We will still hopefully be able to have a massive send off for him in October but for now, the video is a message to a legend.”
