John Joseph Horgan (26 April 1881 – 21 July 1967) was an Irish, Cork-born active nationalist politician, solicitor and author.
During the inquest in Kinsale for the victims of the Lusitania disaster in 1915 he presided as coroner, after which he joined the Coast Patrol service at Millcove near Rosscarbery witnessing the sinking of several cargo vessels during the following years.
[4] He sat on the board of the Cork Harbour Commission for the unusually long period of forty-nine years.
[8] However, when Casement landed in County Kerry in April 1916 on his hapless return from Germany, he was determined if possible to prevent a rebellion taking place.
[9] After his arrest, the Dublin Evening Mail published the fact that he had given a statement to a priest imploring the Volunteer leaders to cancel all plans for an insurrection.
[10] Horgan defended Austin Stack in 1917 when charged under the Defence of the Realm Acts,[9] but from 1918 became firmly convinced that the approach taken by constitutionalists was the only path that would have ensured the unity of Ireland.
He wrote that following the tragic incident at Soloheadbeg in January 1919 the extremists triumphed, but likewise divided Ireland.