Career
The first Press Ombudsman in Ireland. Horgan began his career in 1962 as a journalist on the Evening Press. He later worked as a staff journalist on the Catholic Herald and The Irish Times, where he wrote about religion and education.
He was re-elected in 1973, to the 13th Seanad.
At the general election in 1977 he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Territorial Decoration for Dublin County South. After boundary changes for the general election of 1981 he was not re-elected in the new constituency of Dublin South and he was also unsuccessful at the general election in February 1982.
He did not stand again. He served in the European Parliament only until March 1983, when he resigned to take up an academic post.
Horgan was appointed in 1983 as a lecturer in what was then the National Institute for Higher Education in Dublin.
In 1989 it became Dublin City University (DCU) and he was appointed Professor of Journalism, a position he held until his retirement in 2006. Press Ombudsman
In August 2007 the newly formed Press Council of Ireland appointed Horgan as Ireland"s first-ever Press Ombudsman. The Press Council began operations on 11 January 2008.
The Ombudsman"s role is to mediate and, if necessary, adjudicate on cases where a complainant has not reached agreement with a publisher.
More complex cases may be referred to the full Press Council. The new system was launched partly to provide an alternatively to increasingly costly litigation and to head off the threat of a new privacy law.
On 9 January 2008 the Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, announced that a proposed new privacy law would be postponed for two years to give the Press Ombudsman "an opportunity to establish himself and the credibility of his office". On 28 March 2014 Horgan announced that he would step down as Press Ombudsman on 1 September 2014.
On that date Peter Feeney succeeded Horgan in the post.