EESC President and Hospice chairman honoured at Offaly Person of the Year awards

Two community champions in Offaly have been honoured for decades of service at an awards ceremony organised by the Offaly Association (Dublin) which took place in the Bridge House Hotel on Saturday night.

President of the European Economic and Social Council, Seamus Boland was awarded the Offaly Person of the Year 2025 while the chairman of Offaly Hospice Foundation, Professor Humphrey O'Connor was the recipient of the Unsung Hero of Offaly 2026.

Both men delivered inspiring acceptance speeches about the importance of community and service which held the one hundred strong attendance spellbound thoughout proceedings.

The awards were presented by Liam Fleury, Chairman of the Offaly Association and awards sub-committee and Cllr John Leahy, Cathaoirleach, Offaly Co. Council.

The awards are sponsored by the Celt Bar, Dublin – owned by Coolderry native, Noel Tynan - Tullamore Municipal District Council and Birr Municipal District Council.

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Seamus Boland 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.

Professor Humphrey O'Connor, though not a native of the Faithful County, has made a huge contribution to Offaly in the field of medicine and in his community and voluntary work with the Offaly Hospice Foundation, stretching right back to the group's formation in 1990.
A native of Cahirciveen in county Kerry, his family were shopkeepers with his mother working as a nurse, a role which no doubt inspired his future career.

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