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His co-founders at Clontarf Energy, John Teeling and Jim Finn, said his death was a deep personal loss to each of them. “In over three decades together we have created, financed, managed and listed a series of early-stage exploration ventures in a variety of natural resources. He revelled in high-stakes, high-risk resources exploration. “He was fearless travelling in dangerous territories, traipsing across swamps or exploring long abandoned mines. "He spoke eight languages. After 10 days or so in a new country he could converse with locals in their own language and actively participate in local culture and traditions.” He was outspoken on the need to protect Ireland’s energy security In a career spanning more than four decades, David Horgan worked in some of the world’s most far-flung and often dangerous places, including oil wells in Iraq and Ghana, and gold mines in Zimbabwe. He held oil licences in Peru and discovered a diamond mine in Botswana. He was a regular contributor to media, and at one point wrote a column in the Irish Independent. He was outspoken on issues including what he regarded as the absolute need to protect Ireland’s energy security and countering what he called “alarmism” over climate change, dismissing some environmentalists as “whingers and moaners”. In 2022, as energy costs surged in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he argued in this newspaper that the impact on consumers and businesses was an inevitable consequence of Ireland’s energy policies. We are sleepwalking into an energy crisis worse than the 1970s “Recent governments ignored the need for reliable energy – preferring ideology to common sense. There are no magical solutions. We need multiple sources of energy, and multiple routes to market,” he said. "Given our lack of rational policies, an energy crunch was inevitable. “If not Ukraine, it would have been a Brexit trade war or a Middle Eastern conflict. We are sleepwalking into an energy crisis worse than the 1970s.” John Teeling and Jim Finn said their co-founder’s point of view – that continued resource exploration is necessary – is now coming back into vogue. “David had a simple message: no exploration, no mines, no transition to green energy. His passing, just as the message seems to be getting traction, is ironic. "His death is a huge loss for his friends, family, colleagues, shareholders and the wider Irish resource sector,” they said. David Horgan was born in Belfast and brought up in Dublin and Canada. He was a first-class honours law graduate from Cambridge University, in England and obtained a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He began his professional career abroad with the Boston Consulting Group. He returned to Ireland in 1991 and after a stint with Goffs joined Kenmare Resources where he became commercial director until 1992 when he left to co-found Clontarf Energy. In a storied career he was also co-founder and chair of Petrel Resources, co-founder and director of Botswana Diamonds, and founding chair of Greenore Gold.
