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HYUNDAI MOTORSPORT DEDICATED their podium finish at the Croatia Rally to Craig Breen, their Irish driver who passed away during a pre-event testing accident earlier this month, aged 33.
Racing with the blessing of Breen’s family and his co-driver James Fulton, who was uninjured in the crash, Hyundai ran an Irish-tricolour livery in honour of the Waterford man.
The team later confirmed that Breen’s longtime friend and former team-mate, Northern Ireland’s Kris Meeke, has been invited to contest the remainder of the season for Hyundai, including the WRC’s Rally Portugal in May.
Hyundai’s Finnish duo of Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm earned a third-place finish in Croatia on Sunday, with Toyota’s Elfyn Evans taking top spot.
Fittingly, Evans’ co-driver is Scott Martin, who was previously Breen’s co-driver for five seasons and assisted him to two Circuit of Ireland victories as well as his first WRC podium in 2016.
Such poignancy was laid bare as Martin and Evans crossed the finish line to bridge a two-year gap between race victories, with both men going on to pay tribute to both Breen and his family.
“I was fortunate to share some really special years with Craig,” said co-driver Martin.
It seems quite fitting that we have delivered this result this weekend. For sure he was with us this weekend. I think he was with us all, maybe just supporting me more than the rest.
“I’m really particularly proud of the whole service park. Everyone has done really well to stick together and support each other, and we have to continue doing that because there’s going to be some difficult days still to come when the dust settles a bit from this weekend.”
“It’s difficult to know the right thing to say,” added victorious driver Evans. “It’s been a tough week for everybody, and I think the whole WRC family can be proud of the way it has come together to pay tribute to Craig. It’s a great showing of his character and how popular he was around the service park.
We went to see his family last week and it was also their wish that we made sure we enjoyed ourselves. We made them a promise that we would, and obviously we were able to do that. But, of course, now it’s all over, our thoughts turn back to them at this difficult time.
Podium celebrations were naturally muted, with the winning Toyota crew holding aloft a tricolour flag while Amhrán na bhFiann was played. The Irish anthem was followed by a moment’s silence.
Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul said: “This has been a difficult event for all of the rally community and we must thank everyone far and wide for their help, assistance and understanding.
“Looking at the sporting element of this weekend, we had to dive into this wholeheartedly from the outset of the event; that’s the sport. This was the will of Craig’s family and what he would have wanted; this is very clear. All we have done this week has been for him and in his memory.
“It’s important that we put the sporting element to one side now,” Abiteboul continued. “The sequence of events that has happened since that tragic day last Thursday has been incredibly hard on the team. We had to put our emotions on pause but now is the period of reflection. It will all come back hard, and it is important that we all find the time to deal with this in our own individual way.”
A Hyundai team statement added: “With this podium, we honour Craig and dedicate the result to him, his co-driver James, his wonderful family, devoted friends, and loyal fans, all for whom this past week has been one of raw emotion, sadness, and loss, but also one full of love for a man who gave so much and leaves so much behind.
“A selection of Craig’s inspiring, heart-on-sleeve quotes adorned the team’s service area in Croatia, paying tribute to man whose legacy will live on in the rallying and motorsport community.”
One such quote attributed to Breen was, “Don’t let anyone ever put you down, because only you know your true potential.”
Kris Meeke, Breen’s close friend who will take the Waterford man’s seat in Portugal and for the rest of the season, said that his decision to do so “was not made lightly”, but added: “I knew he would tell me to accept and this is how I will honour him”.
Meanwhile, in the Junior WRC, two up-and-coming Irish stars paid their own fitting tributes to Breen, who also held a role as mentor for Motorsport Ireland.
Donegal’s Eamonn Kelly and his Monaghan co-driver Conor Mohan won the Junior event in Croatia, while Co. Down man William Creighton posted an unmatched 10 winning stage times throughout the event.
Written by Gavan Casey and posted on the42.ie
Sent a lengthy letter years ago to Kallogs detailing my outrage and tremendous dissapointment at finding a black rice Krispy in my box of rice krispies. I carefully packaged it in cotton wool within a match box and posted it off expecting a collection of Kallogs products in return as compensation. Some smart ass sent back a lovely letter apologising for my experience and included a ‘replacement rice krispy’ in the same match box I’d sent.
I was followed around Penneys the other day by the security guard. He was practically resting his head on my shoulder he was that close to me, it was so uncomfortable.
I complained to a manager, only to later overhear her saying I both looked and acted like ‘a weirdo’. Her face was a picture when she realised I had heard her. So not really a great outcome from my complaint . . .
Could be the glasses holly :)
Were you wearing your shades indoors then too?
I’m sitting outside Metro Cafe in the scorching sun in my profile photo, smart arse.
My mistake, Holly. The thumbnail looked like you were running a stall at a parish sale-of-work.
Were you ‘acting and looking like a weirdo’ ,Holly ?
I get the same treatment when I’m hanging around certain branches,too ;)
I was just browsing the make up!
Too Funny, ROLF, lol, Holly, quit while your ahead!!
Surprise surprise I made one about Vodafone. This however was after endless phone calls and two unanswered registered letters to their customer service team (as per their instructions on The Vodafone website).
Lost my patience with them and complained to ComReg which resulted in Vodafone releasing me from my contract 8 months early!
Same thing for me with Eircom, I actually couldn’t believe the things their customer service came up with the try and claim they were in the right. After about 6 weeks of trying to sort it through Eircom’s customer service (which I was obliged to do under ComReg’s rules for when they can intervene) I went to ComReg who managed to clear the whole mess up in about 2 days.
Our internet was down for 7 days following a storm.. Vodafone wouldnt refund the week.. Rang Comreg who told me they wouldnt get involved in getting refunds
A few years ago Vodafone introduced a range of cost saving measures which included redundancies and outsourcing their customer service to companies in the North and abroad. Up until then they prided themselves on the quality of their service, but not now it would seem.
I have had some terrible service from them in the last few years which included 3 high level complaints, 2 of which were dealt with satisfactorily after I made the complaint.
I hope that this report going public makes them rethink their customer service. They still have the best network which makes it hard to leave them. But just pray you never need to deal with them relating to a problem, empathy doesn’t seem to be in their vocabulary anymore.
I complained about rude staff in Dunnes stores and I met a manager and she was rude and arrogant as well….don’t shop there no more
I’ve an issue with dunnes at the moment and the parent child parking. It’s not regulated at all. In the UK it’s a bye law but not here. Anyone can park in the parent child parking space and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. I’ve two small kids and find the spaces taken up by people with no kids. Customer service is useless and treat you like your the problem. Not happy with dunnes stores at all. I don’t shop there now cos they can’t provide a safe environment.
The last time I was in dunnes in Carlow someone pulled straight into a mother and baby spot! Security guard 10ft away reading his magazines as usual. I rarely go because they have the most unhelpful and unfriendly staff.
When to Dunnes in the ilac had a browse and then went to the customer toilets, there was a woman attacking people buggies, pensioners over 20¢ Dunnes days a numbered in my mind. I support buying irish where competitive but Dunnes seems to be stuck in a time warp when it comes to customer service.
A few years back I found a stone inside a packet of crisps, I made a complaint to them and within a day or two a rep came around to the house with a massive box of goodies and an official apology letter with a €5 voucher.
Where can you complain to when customers are downright rude and abusive to you… All well and dandy complaining about a service but staff dealing with the public deserve medals. Ive came across far more situations where ignorant people in the wrong were rude to staff than times I’ve got bad service….
I work in Primark and think this everyday! There’s a select few who know how to grind my gears!
I took a case against Vodafone after four months of being given the run around. Within two days of recieving the confirmation letter of the case Vodafone Head office manager rang and case was resolved.
Vodafone and KBC are the worst!!
Complained to the fsai when I got a sandwich in subway and I noticed something weird looking cooked into the bread. It was sent of to be tested and turned out to be a lump of fibre glass
What was the outcome of that?? That’s fairly bad..
Well the fsai said they’d be following them up about it and I could have paid something like €120 to get the report sent to me so I could take legal proceedings. I didn’t bother, I was happy as long as the fsai were gonna do something about it so that it wouldn’t happen again
Funnily enough there’s currently a subway banner ad along the bottom of this app…
did you know that a chemical that is in yoga mats, is also in subway rolls!!!
I’m about to do a complaint about my insurance claim ……waiting one year now for settlement! It’s a joke.
But who do you complain to and have that body any powers?
Irish people prefer the age old method of moaning about it rather than complaining or fixing the issue.
With the exception of Journal readers, based on the results of this poll.
No but I’m making one now. The Journal has become very dumbed down of late, too many really stupid Garth Brooks and Pat Kenny/Newstalk stories
I don’t think you’re allowed to complain about a free service that you voluntarily use.
@Joey You ok, hun?
What is this about Pat Kenny and Newstalk?
Joey lad you need to get laid. Crawl under a hen and wait.
In america they have the bettee business bureau so consumers can complain and the company is investigated and can be fined or shut down etc. We need that here.
Complained twice to Irish rail. Once about rude staff. Once about their ticket machine not being able to find a reservation but still charging me for it. Never even received a reply to the first one, and the second one was handled terribly. Irish Rail, you still owe me 70 euro!
I’m thinking if complaining about the Journal as that fine looking journalist Sinéad never git back to me with her number :(
Have you ever sent a letter complimenting the great service you received?
Ever used tripadvisor, adverts.ie, tradesmen.ie, ebay.ie, amazon.ie? That’s how I choose my hotels, suppliers, services and good products. So, yes!
Officially complained about AIB a couple of times, but never got anywhere. Never realised a bank could actually provide good customer service until I moved to the UK.
Aib are utterly useless. Complained to them recently. Got a call back to be told they couldn’t help me and I’d have to call into a branch. Then when I called into a branch they took me over to the corner and put me on the phone. recently complained to a bank here in the UK. Great. They even gave me a tenner to compensate me for my half an hour on the phone.
So true! HSBC are great
I made a complaint against Vodafone. Seems to be a common theme here
NCA is a useless, pointless and silly organisation that is toothless when coming to dealing with complaints. Not a single company takes it seriously.
I made a complaint to the financial ombudsman about how a member of credit card company MBNA treated me on the phone. The investigation took almost six months to complete but the ombudsman found in my favour & MBNA had to pay me €100 compensation. I felt vindicated! :)
Made a formal complaint against Three mobile back in 2007, it was ignored.
It was only when I got onto their PR Department did they resolve it for me, funny what the threat of writing a news story about them does :)
Must try that…. Three have to be the worst company I’ve ever had the pleasure of paying over thousands too!!!! They are a disgrace, completely ignore the law of the land and make up their own rules
Three called me last week and told me it was illegal to tether my phone to my laptop.
Any advice for when they are sending the debt collectors after me, they are trying to tell me I spent €173 in less than 14 hours,I’m the only one that was using it and they couldn’t tell me if it was used watching movies,downloading etc…
I think the best thing is pen and paper to head office or the CEO, head of customer services. Calling customer care is like banging your head against a brick wall. If you’ve a new contract less that 30 days or something you might be able to pull out now from it ( or use that as leverage). I wrote to them a couple of times ( The second time was about the phone call I got after the first letter). HATE THREE TRAPPED in a contract.
I made a complaint once about irish rail. They advertised tickets for €9.99 but you could only buy them online and had to pay €2 or €3 booking fee to use a credit card. It bugged me a lot, and normally I wouldn’t be bothered with it but I thought a 30% difference was major plus I just wanted to find out if I could avoid the fee somehow. Irish rail said I just had to pay the fee and that was that and the fee wasn’t part of the ticket price. The was no way to get around the fee so I thought they were wrong to advertise it as €9.99. Anyway when I made a complaint they replied with a line from the Irish rail t&c that didn’t address the issue at all. Some fella in the office didn’t even bother to look into it from what it looked like. In the end I learned to drive.
Took Curry’s to the small claims court over a fridge that kept breaking down, both before and after the warranty expired. Once the warranty was up they didn’t want to know me. Got a full refund and they had to take it away.
I’m trigger happy about reporting Irish companies for spamming and I’ve done it many times.
I also like to report adverts that annoy me, for whatever reason, to the ASA, the reporting adverts is more for my own amusement though, because I always get very nice letters off them telling me they are unable to act upon my complaint.
Email has made complaining so much easier. It’s wonderful.
Get a life!
I’m tempted to report your comment, Mike.
Whatever gets you off…
be careful of the boy who cried wolf syndrom . you will one day have a real complaint that won;t be taken seriously, presuming your comment is serious in the first place .
Went into the local centra and bought a ready made sandwich which was in date, and this is what it was like when I opened it…. The bread was actually rock hard it was that stale… And well… Just look.I went in and complained and got a huge apology and some hot food in return. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=nvd554&s=8#.U9deiaA1gm8
I was going to lodge a formal complaint but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and they treated me well so I didn’t
Jesus, stop biting your nails! You’re almost down to the bone.
The sandwich looks awful btw.
I made a complaint to the nca but it was a waste of time. No follow up at all.
From my experience I am not sit if they do anything.
@ Sol & Andy, the parking you refer to is not ‘mother and baby’ exclusively.
The parking is not exclusively for ‘parents and children’ either.
The parking is for children and their guardians.
Also, the guardian / driver does not have to have the kids with them at the time of parking.
An example would be where a driver drops off a mother and infants to a shopping centre.
The driver vacates the parking spot but returns a while later to pick up the group….are they not entitled to park in the same type designated parking bay?
I complained to RTÉ about practically promoting torture when Philip Boucher Hayes in the Pat Kenny Show interviewed the very bat shit crazy Michael Hayden former CIA director. They casually discussed torture, something I believe is illegal in Ireland, right? I have not received a satisfactory response from RTÉ or PBH to date.
Made one with Cornmarket insurance, well I asked about the process. I’m still waiting on my call back one week later. Nightmare to deal with, unless it’s the sales department of cousre.
Called eircom over there services before, only to be told a hidden gem from a wise person on there little help desk
according to this person…you can browse the internet while not having internet.. so all this time i didnt need internet to browse the internet!
I just hung up the phone on that one never going to bother them considering there number one excuse is “we checked the line at our end and didnt find a problem”..
I have complained formally only when initial queries with staff have been handled badly.
Hand in hand with that behaviour comes the responsibility to be fair & point out when staff/ products have been of a high quality.
I have worked in hotels, restaurants & now in front of a class of students and really appreciate it when someone gives constructive or positive feedback, I try to pass it on when I can.
Years ago I won a free bottle of coke. You unscrewed the kid and underneath you might win a free bottle. Anyway the shop refused to give me a free one so I complained to their head office and they sent me out 2 free bottles and 2 coke keyrings in a small parcel.
I gave a bottle to my mate and we both opened at the same time. The bottles had been so shook up the erupted like a volcano soaking both of us.
Damn you coke and your sugary revenge.
The LID I unscrewed the LID! Fecking autocorrect.
Lol…kid v. lid
yes i have complained but only if i have good reason as i think i did in this case, , an bord gais charged me twice what they should have done on an estimated bill , the bill came to 392 euro . i live on my own and my bill is normally no more then 150 euro . after seeing the high price i did a meter reading and called it in by phone . when i got the revised bill it was as usual under 150 euro . yes i did ring them and point out i was overcharged by at least 153 euros . they did apologize to give them their due and no harm was done in the long run but my dad is in a nursing home and there was a bit of stress floating abiut at that time , if i had not had the time to query the bill i could have been way over charged . it is not difficult to look back at the last few bills and charge me according to the amount on them , if they under charge me they can add it on to the next bill ,
I made an official complaint about Quinn Insurance a few years back about a tv/radio ad, and they had to change the ad. You could never have had the requirements that they had stated to get the cheaper insurance
Hey where is my space. Nobody makes a special space for me
@ Sol & Andy, the parking you refer to is not ‘mother and baby’ exclusively.
The parking is not exclusively for ‘parents and children’ either.
The parking is for children and their guardians.
Also, the guardian / driver does not have to have the kids with them at the time of parking.
An example would be where a driver drops off a mother and infants to a shopping centre.
The driver vacates the parking spot but returns a while later to pick up the same group….are they not entitled to park in the same type designated parking bay?
I wonder if I am the only that has been caught out by Tesco’s pricing of certain goods, when I went to the checkout to pay for my purchases, I was told that I hadn’t enough money to pay for the items (clothing).When I checked the price on the labels I discovered that price was displayed in sterling (in large print) and the €euro price was displayed much smaller. I should have brought a magnifying glass. I wish the Consumer Watchdog would sniff out this anomaly.
Only when my comments are deleated
Quality service keeps you in business. bad service drives people away and you loose your job.
These poll options are always extreme yeses or noes. Why no inbetweens?
Why #Ireland is in a sorry plight…
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