INTERVIEW: Making the most of a second chance

“I miss being on the road and meeting people,” is Jim Hogan's honest assessment of life after winding up his courier business after over a quarter of century on the road.

The decision to wind up Jim Hogan Couriers in September was never Jim's plan but it became inevitable after almost two years of health scares which almost cost the Tipperary native his leg. He is now also partially blind after suffering a stroke earlier this year.

“I can tell you, I didn't see this coming down the road, what has happened to me,” Jim told The Mayo News from his home in The Quay in Westport.

A diabetic for over 20 years, Jim now acknowledges that life as a driver meant he never looked after himself and thought nothing of stopping for a breakfast roll and a mineral while on a journey.

“I didn't look after it [diabetes] at the time. Dr Ollie Whyte will be delighted to hear me say, if you have diabetes please look after it because it is a serious illness even though people don't think it is. For the last couple of years I have known all about it.”

Jim's recent health problems started in April 2024 when he was parking up the Westdoc jeep in Westport at around 8.30pm at night. After jumping out, the jeep started to roll and pinned Jim against a pillar for 40 minutes before he was discovered by a passerby.

“I got my foot bandaged the next day ... I was in no pain in my foot because I had no feeling in the foot,” he explained.

Soon after the incident, he was jetting off to America to his grandchildren's First Holy Communion and it was on the journey home when he discovered the extent of his injury.

“When I came back I had gangrene in my foot which was the start of my troubles.”

High praise

Jim said the care he received in hospital and the primary care centre in Westport was second to none and cannot praise them highly enough.

“They saved my foot and could not have done it anymore. The doctor came in to me one day to tell me how close I came to my leg being taken off.

“Did I suffer for the next couple of months? It took a long time for it to heal and I was in and out of the hospital and up to Tubber Hill [Primary Care Centre] twice a week to have it dressed. I don't know how people can give out about the health service with the way I was looked after.”

Since that day, Jim has not driven and for a man who thought nothing of getting in his van for a day of driving, it was a tough blow.

Just as he was starting to recover from his injuries, Jim suffered another blow when earlier this year he collapsed in his kitchen after suffering a stroke. He was rushed to Mayo University Hospital where he spent ten days in Intensive Care.

“I was lucky, they got me in time and all I have lost is my eyesight in my left eye. My speech is okay and I am able to get around with a stick. I was very lucky. There was someone up there praying for me, that is all I can say,” he acknowledged.

His wife Rita and daughter Gemma stepped in to try to run the company in his absence but they decided it was time to slow things down even if Jim had his reservations.

“Retirement was the last thing on my life. I didn't agree with it in the beginning but I had no choice but to agree with it. It was the right thing,” he admits.

“I am more relaxed. The phone isn't ringing every two minutes. People come into our house and that's the one thing they notice the phone isn't ringing. I could get maybe 50 calls a day and that is not an exaggeration.”

A native of Templederry, 'a small parish on the side of the mountains' in north Tipperary, Jim first arrived in Westport in the early 70s while doing a hotel management course with Jurys.

“I was only here for six months and worked in the bar or 'The Shed' as they called it.

“There was something about the town and the people that I always liked. I always said I would come back to Westport if I ever got a chance.”

That chance came in late 1978 when Jim was managing the Bankers Club in Dublin when a group of Bank of Ireland employees from Westport came up for the weekend. While chatting about the town, he was informed that the Ocean Wave, which is now the Quays Bar, was up for lease and Jim decided to take the plunge west.

Jim Hogan and his wife Rita pictured at their home at The Quay in Westport. Pic: Conor McKeown

Move West

A few months later, he married Rita, a native of Abbeyshrule in Co Longford and they moved west where they reared a family of two daughters and a son.

For the next two decades, he managed and ran a number of bars around Westport including the Helm, Boat Club, the Forge on Mill Street and the bar in Westport House.

“I loved the bar work, I was born and reared in a bar but it is a different way of life.”

It was a chance glance at the classified section of The Mayo News which took Jim down a different path in life when he answered an ad for a van driver. He worked for Jimmy Cunningham on the 'bank run' to Dublin for the next two years when he got the chance of getting his own van and Jim Hogan Couriers was on the road.

“I knew nothing about it, I just knew people,” he laughs when he thinks back to the first few months of the business. “I worked long hours, maybe 60 or 70 a week but I didn't mind it.

“I was lucky. I knew a good few fellas in different places and got on well with people and they were willing to give me a chance. It started from there.”

Contracts with the Health Board and delivering The Mayo News around the county resulted in Jim having to buy new vans and hire new drivers. At its height Jim had seven vans on the road.

Going out on long drives and meeting people around the country was what Jim loved about the job; dealing with the paperwork less so.

“That was the one part I wasn't good at. As for bills going out I was terrible. People used to ring up to know if I was going to send out a bill. I was terrible at sending bills.”

Passion

As a Tipperary man it will not come as a shock that Jim's main passion in life is hurling. While admitting he was not the most skilful hurler, he hurled for his home club, Templederry Kenyons where he won a Junior North Tipperary title and later with Commercials in Dublin.

He was a boarder in St Flannan's College in Ennis where he hurled alongside future All-Ireland winner Joe McKenna and described his five years there as the best years of his life because of hurling.

Since moving west, he has worked tirelessly to spread the Gospel of the small ball and along with other like minded 'blow-ins' like Stephen Broderick and Andy Doyle, he helped to revive hurling in west Mayo even if the locals were not too keen.

“It was not that they were anti hurling, it was just they did not know anything about it. Westport was a soccer town then and there were three soccer teams when I came first and none of the town lads played Gaelic.”

The club started with fielding underage sides and they hit the jackpot when a group of young players including his son James came together and they won the U-14 Féile competition in Wexford in 1997.

“You have to start at a young age but there is no reason why a lad from Westport can't be as good as a fella from Templederry ... and we proved it. We won Féile with an extraordinary group.

“The biggest thing with the hurling club is holding onto fellows, we are losing too many. We won the Féile and two years later there were only three lads playing hurling with the club – Paul Broderick, James and Stephen Gallagher – and the reason they were there is they were sent out,” he laughed.

“Hurling hasn't the support it should be given. We had only one coach for years and you cannot do it with that. I admire Toreen for what they have done up there, you have to admire them and it just shows it can be done.”

As he continues his recovery, Rita has him on a strict diet and gone are the days of the breakfast roll and bottles of pop and he feels much better for it. He feels he has got a second chance in life and is determined to grasp that chance with both hands.

“If I have the health I will get back into the hurling club and there is no reason why I can't. I have never felt better. When I didn't lose the leg that time and came out of the stroke there was someone up there praying for me.”

READ MORE: West Mayo Postman retires after 25 years of service