So sad, RIP Ollie, a menace on the sidelines but everyone loved him. Gave so much to Irish football, I don't even know him and I'll miss him immensely
Will leave a huge legacy in the game and will be hugely missed.RIP.
Very Sad news.
Gave his all to Harps and every other club or team he was involved with, could never fault him for effort or commitment. He brought some of my fondest memories as a Harps fan including promotions, premier survivals and a host of great nights. He was a real character in Irish football and proper gentleman in life.
R.I.P. Ollie, my condolences to the Horgan family and friends
54 Crew-Finn Harps FC Supporters Club
Following Harps Home & Away
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Just read the news about Ollie.
A sad loss to the LOI. A character,to say the least.
Condolences to his family
I didn't know this (from the RTE website): 'An accomplished pianist, he enjoyed the works of Bach and Beethoven'.
What a character. So sad that he's gone. We'll miss you, Ollie.
He was a properly excellent pianist. Man of many talents. A real legend though. His time at Harps didnt end as well as everyone would have hoped, but his mark on our history won't be forgotten. RIPOriginally Posted by Straightstory
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
One of the characters that made this the GLITW. A legend. RIP Ollie.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
this.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Yeah he loved talking Bach to match officials too
54 Crew-Finn Harps FC Supporters Club
Following Harps Home & Away
https://www.facebook.com/54CrewFHFC
RIP Ollie. A LOI Legend.
Ollie was the marmite man in LOI football. You loved him because he called out referees and the league, made average teams good and good teams better. In football terms you hated him because he was right. Personally I loved him and everything he did. If every current had the passion Ollie had we would be in a better place. R.I.P Ollie you will be
Missed
Proper Ollie that is, a selfless and ultra hardworking man doing all he could to keep it as under wraps as possible so he could get on with helping his club, fellow staff and players without putting himself in the limelight. A brilliant character to boot. RIP
Paaatrick's Agletic
Unless there was something happen suddenly that we dont know about, blood cancers (of which I know a bit about now) can be scarily fast and pancreatic is the also scary silent one. Regardless 57 is no age at all and is tragic. Add in that he was a likeable, mischievous rogue in our league, that was all in slogging it for not a whole lot of money, well its a big loss to the LoI community. Id love to know what he was like as a teacher but Id imagine he was fun, stories and quite possibly made math interesting. Always hoped he'd be back as manger and the main man for talking down good results again.
RiP Ollie,
*yup as mentioned above, its very Ollie like to be out coaching with 3 weeks left on the clock. He loved what he did obviously and didnt let things stop him until they did.
Last edited by Nesta99; 28/08/2025 at 8:21 PM.
Had the pleasure of sitting beside him at a Rovers v Harps match when he got sent to the stands, nothing new there, but even from the 10th row of the west stand in Tallafornia he was still barking out the orders and directing the Harps lads even though they were 3 or 4 down at this stage, the presence of the man was unbelievable, we'll never see his like again for a long time, ar dheis dé go raibh anam
RIP Ollie, he always came across as gentle man with a larger than normal passion and he really was the perfect manager if your team needed a commander in the trenches like Finn Harps needed for so many seasons
By all accounts he was a LOI encyclopedia with knowledge of just about every player in the league, he was caught scouting at random games on all corners of the country at all levels, just look at all of the players from every corner of the country whether from Cork or Dublin he convinced to do mad commutes up to Donegal to play for Finn Harps
The Leinster Senior League needs a strong Bohemians
RIP Ollie
He was LOI Gold 🥇 pure gentleman
Signed an autograph for a nephew of mine outside OP one night just as he was headed for the Harps bus and quipped "hope that's not another fuquing contract I just signed" -LoL 😆 a diamond of a guy.
Such sad news. I've had serious admiration for the job he did at Harps for all those years, with feck all money.
The number of hours he put into that job, whilst still teaching was incredible. He'd make a dozen or so phone calls every weekend just to talk football with lads he knew, drive up and down the country to watch a lad he thought had potential. Some going.
Only met him a few times, but civil fella and always had time for a chat, even if it's with a busload of slightly merry (and probably a bit annoying) Derry fans in a pub in Longford before a game.
A real loss to the League. One of the good guys.
I honestly dont think it is overstating it to say Ollie Horgan saved Finn Harps. I think if you look at where the club was in the 3 years before he came in it was in was in the bottom half/third of the first division at a time when it was I would argue an awful lot weaker than it is now. I also think the cultural cache of the club in the county was at its lowest ebb ever coinciding with a particularly strong period for the intercounty team. That run to the FAI Cup semi final really reinvigorated interest in the club, judged by the amount of away fans were at it, and my own interest at a time when I was on a bit of a break from football and the big games that followed over the coming years. the game against Derry in 2016 the first game back in the premier division with an announced attendance of 4,500 but which i suspect is twice that as ive never seen the Finn Park so full, the limerick game and all that followed. i think by 2022, commercially the game was going away from Harps and i think time since has proved that it really wasnt the manager.
I think his lasting legacy should be the confidence Harps should have in that the club can success can capture the minds of the sporting public of Donegal, that while things feel again at a bit of low ebb, that the right appointment, the right run of games and people will turn out. i think, as a result of Ollie, Harps place in the sporting landscape feels much more assured than it did in 2014.
So sorry to hear this, characters is possibly the thing I love most about LOI, just don't seem to get it so sincere in other codes in Ireland, LOI different gravy.
Ollie H, Cork Tom, even back to the 00's Damien Richardson with his infamous programme notes 'I have often been drunk on the alure of the FAI Cup' Dermot Keely, Roddy C, Pat Dolan, all mad stuff there, Ollie Byrne at Shels take your pick and that's just the managers, then we had Tom McNulty travelling back to Dundalk on the train still in his full DFC kit after beating Cork City away to win 1991 league, the list goes on and on.
RIP Ollie, you will be missed.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), only Irish club to win a game / points in Europa League Group Stage (2016).
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