Commercial vehicles are a passion and an addiction for some collectors and a vital commemoration of Irish social history.

Co Dublin-based, Mr Brian O'Leary, says he has been on enthusiasts' runs in England involving up to 300 or 400 such vehicles - anything from steam to a 20-year-old lorry. But he concedes: "You're either into them or you're not."

A bachelor, he says: "There's not many women would put up with this crack. The thought of going out playing with your lorry doesn't enthrall them. There's generally an eccentricity attached to this. But I'd compare it to the guy who goes into a pub on a Friday evening. I've something to show for my time. It's constructive and you're creating something. And you get a kind of kick out of creating it and you get a kind of kick out of running it."

The Transport Museum Society of Ireland in Howth, Co Dublin, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last Saturday, holds a huge collection of restored and unrestored commercial vehicles, including buses, fire engines, lorries and horse-drawn equipment. It is a scandal that it does not receive adequate funding from the State, says Mr O'Leary.

This collectible is definitely more of a hobby than a financial investment. While road tax for vehicles over 30 years of age is only £25 a year, getting insurance in the Republic - unlike in Northern Ireland or Britain - can be a huge problem. And at approximately 10 miles to the gallon for vehicles of 150 to 200 horsepower, the fuel economy of these things is not their strong point.

Mr O'Leary has a 1962 Leyland Beaver, which he purchased at scrap value, literally by weight, for about £500. It took three and a half years to restore it. "Materials alone for that lorry cost me maybe £4,000, that's the one I have restored. That's just material."

But if someone takes a 10-year-old child to the museum at Howth, "You can put him on a tram that ran from the turn of the century or put him on a bus that you and I remember that you get on at the back and hit the bell with your fists. That is priceless."

Mr Michael Corcoran, president of the Transport Museum Society of Ireland, says: "Every activity that you or anyone does depends at some stage on transport.

"These things affect our lives far more than we would realise and we certainly wouldn't like to admit it. Like everything else, they have a history and a heritage and a tradition all their own.

"Today, a lot of people would maintain that a transport vehicle has come into contact with more people than any other artefact you could imagine. That's the basis we work on.

"I would contend that these things commemorate the lives of the people who built up this country, the people who've given us whatever degree of prosperity we have today."

Mr Michael McGeehan of packaging distributor James McGeehan & Sons Transport in Draperstown, Co Derry and chairman of the Ulster Vintage Commercial Vehicle Club, hopes to see a vintage commercial vehicle trip around Ireland next July.

Starting from Northern Ireland, he expects it might go down to Wexford, with further overnight stays in Cork, Galway and Donegal. It's not a race; it's laid back. The idea is to meet up with people with similar interests along the way.

Interested parties can contact Mr McGeehan 0801 648 28253 after 6 p.m.

Joe Armstrong is at jmarms@irish-times.ie