Offaly Person of the Year 2025: Séamus Boland

This is a slightly shortened version of the citation for the Offaly Person of the Year Award, delivered at the 37th Offaly Person of the Year Awards, hosted by the Offaly Association (Dublin) in the Bridge House Hotel in Tullamore

The award goes to a man who has been a champion of marginalised groups, rural Ireland and indeed the wider community during a career in which he has achieved major milestones at county, regional, national and now European level.

The pinnacle of his career, to date, was achieved last October when he was elected President of the European Economic and Social Committee, of the European Union, at a ceremony in Brussels attended by representatives from the 27 member states.

The 69-year-old worked with the Travelling community and youth groups before becoming the CEO of Moate-based Irish Rural Link in the early noughties and also held positions as chairman of the Wheel, a national co-ordinating body representing charities, as chairman of the Peatlands Council and as chairman of Pobal, the State body that administers funding to community groups.

What makes his achievements all the more extraordinary is that he spent just over a year in secondary school and didn't sit either the Intermediate or Leaving Certificate examinations and yet he is now one of the main elected decision makers in the European Union.

The 2025 Offaly Person of the Year grew up on a small farm in the Island, in Rahan parish, near the village of Ballycumber.

He was the eldest of three and like most farms of the period it was a mixed enterprise, with cattle and pigs.

His formal education essentially finished at just 13 when he returned to farm as his father was unwell. But like many of his generation from rural areas his third level education came though involvement in the youth organisation, Macra na Feirme, when he joined the Boher branch when only 14 or 15.

He credits the late Jim Kenny from Ballycumber for inspiring his passion for debating, public speaking and carrying out research.

Though his involvement with Boher branch he graduated onto the Macra Offaly County Executive which organised the national Queen of the Land festival in Tullamore each November.

The Island man was elected national Vice-President of Macra and was considering running for the post of President when his first child was born. "I had too much to do, I had a house to run, a farm and all rest and I decided I needed to go back to college," he now recalls.

He now has two qualifications in Speech and Drama teaching having studied at the Limerick School of Music and Trinity College in Dublin and credits Tullamore library, introduced to him by Jim Kenny, with providing him with essential help with his studies.

Following his graduation, Offaly Vocational Education Committee employed him to teach speech and drama at St Colmcille's training workshop in Tullamore before he secured the role of manager at the Athlone Traveller Training Workshop.

"That was my first management job and I loved it," he remembers

From there he worked for a Midland Health Board body, APT, whose function was to place people with disabilities in employment, which was a challenging period.

The 2025 Offaly Person of the Year then secured the post of director of the Youth Project in Athlone after which he took on the role of rejuvenating the Midlands Youth Services, which covered Offaly and Westmeath, a role in which he excelled.

Then in the early noughties another door opened when he became the national co-ordinator of Irish Rural Link. Under his leadership the body rebranded and he became its first CEO ensuring it gained a huge national profile as a voice for not just farmers, but for the whole of rural Ireland.

He became involved with the European Economic Social Committee in 2011 and since then he regularly attends meetings with European leaders, including the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The EESC is a consultative and advisory assembly composed of representatives from employers' associations, trade unions and civil society organisations.

The Island man's election as President last October catapulted him into one of the main decision making posts in the European Union.

Offaly is proud of his achievements and the key role he has played in championing rural Ireland and marginalised groups throughout his career.