The incident happened when the car he was driving hit a pole. His navigator James Fulton was uninjured.

Hyundai Motorsport driver Breen was the son of Irish champion rally driver Ray Breen.

He is also survived by his mother Jackie, sister Kellie, brother-in-law Darragh and godson Bobbie, and extended family, friends and all his motorsport family.

People lined the streets of Ferrybank in Waterford as Breen’s Ford Escort rally car was driven from his home to the Church of the Sacred Heart ahead of the hearse bearing his coffin, followed by hundreds of mourners.

The coffin, draped in a tricolour, was then carried into the church.

So many local people and rally fans had attended that a large screen was erected in the adjoining cemetery.

At the beginning of the mass, Kellie spoke lovingly and proudly of the “guy behind the helmet”, saying that from a young age all he ever wanted to do was play with toys with wheels on them.

She told how at his first and last football practice he fell and hit his head and needed to go to A&E to get clips in the cut, and how they will never know how his first keyboard lesson resulted in seven stitches to his face.

“Craig was happiest when he was tearing around in whatever would allow him to enjoy the fastest speed,” Kellie said. “He gave years pedalling his go-kart around our house and then eventually on to his petrol kart where he upgraded to going up and down the driveway and eventually to up and down the road.

“Neighbours remember hearing him coming, zipping up and down in his beloved noisy kart, with my poor dad and Val as marshals standing in the cold checking for cars.

“He loved to push things to their limits, seeing what he could make them do and what fun he could knock out of them.

“He was only five minutes out on his new quad in the field close by when my mother got a call from his friend saying, ‘You better come back down, Jackie, the quad is on its roof’.

“He gravitated towards anyone who smelled of oil, and had an early love for our neighbour John Purcell, who would fix cars in his garage.”

Kellie added that once in playschool, when it came to making Valentine’s Cards and all the mother’s were collecting them, Craig’s teacher pulled Jackie aside first and said: “I’m so sorry, Jackie, but Craig insisted on dedicating this one to John.”

Speaking of how Jackie would be apprehensive going to parent-teacher meetings when Craig was young, Kellie said: “The career guidance teacher gave her the same lecture every year. ‘I don’t know what planet he lives on, but he thinks he’s going to drive cars for a living. You’ll have to have another word’.”

Kellie said Craig, her younger brother, was the cutest child, placid and easy-going, and he would not like to upset anyone, so she urged people to remember the happy times and fun episodes they had with him.

“So please keep his spirit alive for all of us. His school yearbook send-off quote was that he wanted to make people proud. Well, Craigy, I can safely say, mission accomplished,” she said to applause from the full church and the crowd outside.

Items brought to the altar included one of Breen’s helmets, a trophy, his gloves, a model kart and a packet of Barry’s teabags, which Fr Kieran O’Shea said he and his cars seemed to be powered by.

In his opening address, Fr O’Shea said it was a day of sadness, grief and heartache

“This is an unbelievably sad day. It’s a day that in people’s wildest imaginations no one could ever have thought would be a reality. But, as they say, we are where we are. This is as real as it gets. Craig's all too short life on this earth has ended,” he told mourners.

“Yes, there is sadness, there is tears, but do you know what? The sun is shining today. The sun is shining because we're bidding farewell to somebody who brought sunshine and joy to so many people on his short journey through life.

“We are so grateful for that. Our tears are mingled with a great sense of gratitude today. Gratitude that we gather with each other, to pray, to give thanks, to cry, to laugh.”

At the end of the mass, tributes were paid by people from the world of rallying.

Driver and commentator Mike Chen said Breen was a superstar who kept his feet firmly on the ground and who had positivity and left an indelible mark on everyone from grassroots rallying to WRC.

“He came from the best family and can never be replaced,” Chen said.

Commentator Beck Williams said Breen was never afraid to show emotion, had a dream to get to WRC level and achieved that.

“He was brought up to love and be loved,” she said.

Mentor James Coleman said Breen had only one flaw – he was too nice.

“If he beat somebody, he would nearly feel bad about it. He was the people’s champion,” he said.

After the remains were brought to the cemetery for burial, mourners watched a video montage of clips from Breen’s racing career on the big screen.

This week’s Croatia Rally is the fourth event of the World Rally Championship’s 2023 season.

Ahead of it, Breen and Fulton were in sixth place in the table. The pair claimed a second overall place in the Rally of Sweden in February.