Highly regarded League of Ireland manager and coach Ollie Horgan has died, aged 57, after a short illness.<\/p>\n
Horgan stepped away from his work as assistant manager with Galway United just three weeks ago. A Salthill native, he served as assistant to John Caulfield at Galway since 2023.<\/p>\n
Having began his management career with Donegal club Fanad United, Horgan built his League of Ireland reputation at Finn Harps, the club he managed from 2013 to 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He succesfully kept the club in the League of Ireland top tier for much of that spell and also enjoyed two promotion-winning campaigns in the First Division.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The wild-haired, colourful figure became one of the best-known, most admired figures in the league.<\/p>\n
A PE teacher, he worked for many years at St Eunan’s College in Letterkenny.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As tributes pour in from around the Irish football community, Fanad United expressed the club’s devastation at the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Like the whole football community we were devastated to hear of the passing of our former player and manager Ollie Horgan today.\u00a0 A true football man who was respected throughout the country.”<\/p>\n
Dundalk FC announced the club will host a book of condolences at Oriel Park tomorrow night ahead of their First Division meeting with Kerry.<\/p>\n
“We at Dundalk FC are deeply saddened by the passing of Ollie Horgan, a true pillar of the League of Ireland football community.<\/p>\n
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. His contributions and achievements have left a lasting legacy, and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him.”<\/p>\n
Cork City expressed sadness at the loss of a “a highly respected figure throughout Irish football”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Ollie will be truly missed by everyone across the League of Ireland community.”<\/p>\n
Shelbourne said Horgan’s “deep passion for football left a lasting impact across the League of Ireland”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bohemians rememered a “League of Ireland legend”, whose “presence and passion will be so sorely missed by all”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bray Wanderers saluted a “stalwart of the League of Ireland football community”. Longford Town said “our league has lost a true legend in Ollie”.<\/p>\n
Wexford remembered a “League of Ireland great”, a “passionate sideline presence and man of huge talent”.<\/p>\n
St Patrick’s Athletic said “Ollie contributed hugely to football in Ireland and was a hugely popular figure throughout our league.”<\/p>\n
While Sligo Rovers paid tribute to a coach “whose passion, dedication, and commitment to football left a lasting impact. His knowledge and determination brought out the best in his teams.<\/p>\n
“Above all, Ollie will be remembered as a man of integrity who gave his all to Irish football.”<\/p>\n
This story will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highly regarded League of Ireland manager and coach Ollie Horgan has died, aged 57, after a short illness.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,18142,19,17,6435,18143,18144,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-28899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-fai","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-league-of-ireland","13":"tag-local-soccer","14":"tag-premiership","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}