Tributes paid to late VW pioneer

TRIBUTES have been paid to a one of the first Volkswagen dealers in the country who raced his “beloved Beetle” in many rallies before finally changing his dealership allegiance to Toyota.

Paddy O’Callaghan, aged 74, from Kanturk, Co Cork, died earlier this week after a short illness.

“He had an amazing capacity to make friends and had a fantastic way with young people,” his nephew Gerard O’Carroll said.

Paddy began rally driving in the early 1960s and drove the same car for many years, in the processes capturing the Galway rally title and becoming runner up in the Circuit of Ireland rally for older cars.

“Paddy attended rallies up to last year. He must have been the most popular man in Irish motor sport,” Mr O’Carroll said.

The only gift he asked for at his funeral Mass was the handbrake from that car.

He passed on his driving skills to his son, Liam, who some years later became one of the top rally drivers in the country.

Paddy took over the running of his family’s coach building business in Kanturk when he was in his late teens, following the death of his father, William.

In the mid-1960s, he became one of the first people in the country to acquire a Volkswagen dealership and went on to sell thousands and thousands of trusty Beetles.

He kept several Beetles as part of a collection.

“In 1978, he moved over to Toyota and continued over the years to be one of its biggest dealers in the country,” Mr O’Carroll said.

“He was a large man in stature and always said (tongue-in-cheek) that he was Toyota’s biggest dealer.”

Paddy O’Callaghan is survived by his wife, Betty, and children Liam and Lisa, by four grandchildren and numerous nephews and nieces.