Moate man 'honoured' to be new CEO of Irish Rural Link
Moate native Briain Smyth has been appointed as the new chief executive of Irish Rural Link, succeeding Seamus Boland who served in the role for more than two decades.
Mr Smyth said it was "a genuine honour" to take up the leadership of the organisation at "a pivotal moment" for rural Ireland.
Irish Rural Link is based on the Clara Road in Moate and works to support and advocate for communities in rural areas. Founded in 1991, it represents over 600 community groups and has a combined membership of 25,000 people.
The organisation described its new CEO as "an Irish entrepreneur and rural development leader with 30 years of experience spanning media, energy, agri-business, and sustainability".
Mr Smyth took up the role on Wednesday last, April 1. Earlier in his career he worked in the Irish media industry during the 1990s and early 2000s, gaining experience across print media, magazines, digital media, media events, and press monitoring for Government and public sector clients.
He then moved into renewable energy development, working across biomass, bioenergy and agricultural feedstocks from the mid-2000s onwards.
He co-founded Biotricity, developing large-scale combined heat and power projects using agricultural biomass - both in Ireland and in France.
Among his most significant contributions during this period was the formulation in 2018 of an early vision for the redevelopment of the former ESB peat-fired power station at Rhode, County Offaly, as a green energy hub - a concept that has since evolved into a broader national policy objective for the just transition of former peat communities.
Irish Rural Link said that, by working across two jurisdictions over more than two decades, Mr Smyth "brought complex energy projects from concept through planning, permitting, and grid connection to commercial readiness, before successfully completing their sale to international institutional investors in 2022".
Following this sale, Mr Smyth worked as an independent energy and sustainability consultant through Crannog Consultancy, advising on renewable energy development, rural community energy projects, and the intersection of agricultural land use with the energy transition.
Irish Rural Link pointed out that Mr Smyth was "rooted in the farming and rural community of Westmeath" and that he lives in the Moate area with his spouse.
"Briain brings to Irish Rural Link a deep understanding of the practical, economic, and policy challenges facing rural Ireland — as well as the commercial and strategic experience to pursue ambitious solutions," it stated.
Commenting on his appointment, Mr Smyth said: "Rural communities are not peripheral to this country’s future — they are central to it. The talent, the land, the energy resources, and the community spirit that exist outside our cities represent one of Ireland's greatest untapped strengths.
"Irish Rural Link has spent more than three decades giving voice to those communities — challenging policy that fails them, and championing the people, the places, and the networks that make rural Ireland work.
"I am immensely proud to continue that mission," he said.
He paid tribute to his predecessor as CEO, saying Seamus Boland's leadership of Irish Rural Link "has built this organisation into the authoritative national voice for rural communities that it is today".
"Séamus leaves an extraordinary legacy — one I inherit with great respect and no small sense of responsibility," said Mr Smyth.
"His election in October 2025 as the 35th President of the European Economic and Social Committee is a remarkable achievement and a testament to the respect he has earned across European civil society.
"That rural Ireland now has one of its own leading European civil society at the highest level is both a tribute to Séamus personally and a powerful signal of what organised, determined advocacy can achieve.
"I look forward to working closely with him in his new role, ensuring that the voice of rural Ireland is heard not just at home, but at the heart of Europe."
Looking ahead to his priorities in the new role, he said he would first take time to listen to Irish Rural Link's member organisations in local communities and to the policymakers whose decisions shape rural life.
"I want to build an agenda that is ambitious, evidence-based, and grounded in the realities of the people we represent," he explained.
"I look forward to bringing new ideas and innovative solutions into the public realm - to challenge the prevailing narrative, to open fresh debate, and to work together with communities, with Government, and with civil society on how we rebuild the towns, villages and parishes that have been devastated by decades of service withdrawal.
"The conversation about rural Ireland's future must be bolder, and Irish Rural Link intends to lead it.
"Rural Ireland is not asking for charity. It is asking for a fair deal in the transitions that are reshaping this country — the energy transition that is already transforming our landscape, the environmental challenges that fall disproportionately on rural communities and rural land, and the economic transitions that must deliver real jobs and real opportunity outside our cities," he added.
"At the same time, too many rural communities continue to lose the services and the people that sustain them — depopulation and the hollowing out of local services remain among the most acute and underacknowledged challenges facing rural Ireland today.
"Rural communities must be partners in these changes, not bystanders to them. Irish Rural Link will be an unambiguous voice for that partnership, and I look forward to leading that work," he concluded.