Mike Gaine search: Rally drivers in special campaign to ‘bring Mike home'
The 56-year old has now been missing almost 40 days since Friday, March 20 and despite an almost six-week garda investigation there has been no lead into what happened to him.
Mike was a great supporter of motorsport in Kerry, and a former competitor, and this weekend his friends in rallying circles have joined the ongoing search for the farmer with their own special plea.
All rally cars competing in this weekend's Rally of the Lakes will carry special stickers in support of the search for missing Kenmare man Michael Gaine.
The stickers read: 'Mike Gaine - Help bring him back - One of our own – Rally of the Lakes 2025'.
"I know Mike since he was a teenager I drew silage with him and he worked in the quarry with me. He had a fierce interest in rallying and he would go to watch stages a lot.'
"Every time we do the Molls Gap stage we pass his land and when people are watching it they are standing on his land and he never objected to it.'
'This year as we pass Molls Gap we will beep in honour of him'.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Michael was a familiar sight on the stages behind the wheel of his Ford Escort Mk2 and since then interest has continued with Mike regularly attending events.
The stickers were handed out in each rally pack and the cars will have Mike's picture on them with their plea and it is hoped that the latest effort to help find Mike will bring more information to light.
"We would just like his disappearance to come to a conclusion. This was his sport and we wanted to do this for him,' said Thomas.
The last official sighting of Mike Gaine is buying phone credit in his local Central Shop on March 20. He was officially reported missing on Friday, March 21.
He left the shop in his bronze-coloured Toyota RAV 4, with the registration 152KY366. The car was found in his farm yard just off the N71 at Carraig East, Kenmare along with his phone and wallet.
Since then – almost six weeks ago – gardaí have led an investigation into his disappearance but despite one of the most extensive searches ever carried out in Kerry his disappearance remains a mystery.
Gardaí have described the case as 'unique and challenging'.
Gardaí are examining all options, and although foul play has not been ruled out, there is no evidence of any crime.
The Defence Forces has now spent four weeks searching the 1,000-acre farm, but nothing of any significance has been found.
Last week Defence Forces personnel from 12th Infantry Battalion and an Engineer Specialist Search Team (ESST) from 1 Brigade Engineer Group continued their search of Mr Gaine's farm in Kenmare which spans more than 1,000 acres of difficult terrain.
In the past six weeks An Garda Síochána has been helped by the Civil Defence (Kerry and Cork), Irish Coast Guard Units (Glenderry and Iveragh), Irish Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 115, Kerry Mountain Rescue, Search and Rescue Dog Team, Kerry Fire Service and 200 civilian volunteers to help search for Mike but to no avail.
To date An Garda Síochána has undertaken nearly 230 formal jobs/inquiries, taken nearly 100 witness statements and recovered about 1,500 hours of CCTV/dash-cam footage.
In their latest appeal Gardaí reached out to cycling clubs in Kerry to see if any of their members were in the vicinity of the farm on March 20.
However, there is still no conclusion to what has become one of the county's and country's most prominent missing cases.
Mr Gaine is described as being about 5ft 10in, with a stocky build, brown/grey hair and a bushy beard.
When last seen, he was wearing an orange woolly hat, black fleece, blue jeans and black boots.
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