(From the homily preached at his funeral by Mgr P.G.O’Dea)

He was born on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, 1921 at Clonteen, Tulla, Co. Clare in the South of Ireland. He was born into a farming family. There were nine children of whom he was the last but one, five boys and four girls. Three of the boys would go on to become priests and two of the girls, nuns. Two sisters and one brother were married. The youngest was drowned in a tragic accident when he was a toddler, the first of many sorrows in Father Hogan's life.

Matthew, known to his fellow clergy in Lancaster as Sean, attended the local national school in Tulla before attending St. Flannan's College in Ennis and then All Hallows seminary in Dublin. He was ordained priest for this diocese on June 24th 1945. Towards the end of that summer he arrived in this country.

He served for a short period at St.Anthony’s, Preston before moving to St. Teresa’s where he spent five years. Then he spent ten years at St. Kentigern’s also in Blackpool before moving to St.Margaret Mary’s Carlisle for about eighteen months. There followed a brief stay back in Blackpool, at St. John Vianney’s before becoming Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Rosary, Dalton in Furness. He left there after ten years to become Parish Priest of this parish, St.Peter’s Lytham. He spent twenty one years here and retired nearby in 1996.

I first met Father Hogan on March 17th, 1949 at a dinner to celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick. I was impressed by the smartly dressed priest sitting beside me who wore a tonsure suit, the clergy dress wear for important occasions in those days. We have been friends since then though without aggreeing to any extent on matters theological or political.

ln September 1950, I supplied for him at St. Kentigern’s while he was in hospital. I was impressed both with the work he was doing as hospital chaplain and in the parish. When I came to know him better, I realized that his care for sick and suffering people of all kinds was greatly influenced by his personal experience of suffering and loss. In addition to the loss of his youngest brother, his mother died when he was a schoolboy and his father when he was a teenager. His priest brother, Jim, died when only 35, and his other priest brother, Pat was killed in a nasty car accident while still a curate.

Father Hogan was a generous man, generous with his own money. With parish money he always liked a bargain. I remember an occasion when I went to him and told him l needed some money to help a priest in want. He did not ask for names or details and I left with a cheque well into four figures.

Being a priest for him meant in the first place, his daily Mass and the recitation of his Breviary. Then people were the centre of his life. He never spoke about the cross be had to bear when failing sight made it impossible for him to say Mass or read the Breviary. What gave him the greatest satisfaction in his declining years was that he was able to stay on in his bungalow in St. Annes. This was entirely due to the devoted care and attention he received from his great friend Margaret Mooney. I am sure Margaret he would have liked me to thank you on his behalf and this I gladly do.

After his stroke, he was moved to Victoria Hospital where he had ministered so faithfully all those years before. There he died on Sunday morning last. Please remember him in your Masses and prayers; this l know he would want me to ask you to do. May he rest in peace.