The Culture File Debate: The Hare’s Corner Jane Clarke, Catherine Cleary, Jane Carkill and Colm Mac Con Iomaire in conversation with Paddy Woodworth

In Partnership with RTÉ lyric fm's Culture File

‘The Hare’s Corner’ is an ancient Irish farming tradition that encourages the wisdom of leaving spaces of land for nature, outside the imperatives of production. This new book, with poetry by Jane Clarke, prose by Catherine Cleary, illustrations by Jane Carkill and photographs by BurrenBeo forms “a beautiful tapestry of courage and resolve” (Mary Robinson) from instances of reviving this practice in our contemporary landscapes. Our panel, also including Colm Mac Con Iomaire and chaired by Paddy Woodworth, produced for Culture File’s Naturalist Bookshelf series, will tease out and test the hope it offers for our shared future.

Jane Clarke is the author of three poetry collections with Bloodaxe Books, which have been nominated for many awards, including the TS Eliot Poetry Prize, the Forward Prize, the Piggott Poetry Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Award. Jane edited the illustrated anthology, Windfall: Irish Nature Poems to Inspire and Connect (Hachette Books Ireland, 2023) as well as Origami Doll, New & Collected Shirley McClure (Arlen House 2019). Originally from a farm in Roscommon, Jane now lives in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow. 

Catherine Cleary is the co-founder of Pocket Forests, and is a freelance journalist. She lives in Co. Roscommon.

Jane Carkill is an illustrator and textile designer living in Co. Clare on the west coast of Ireland. She studied Fine Art Textiles at the School of Design and Creative Arts in Atlantic Technological University. She is fascinated by natural ephemeral beauty and intricate detail and combines a love of folklore, narration, myth and story with a precise style of illustration to capture an essence in nature that is both magical and nostalgic. Flora and fauna are the ultimate inspiration for her work, which work portrays the distinctive elements and characteristics of her everyday experience in the countryside.

Colm Mac Con Iomaire is a highly acclaimed Irish composer and multi-instrumentalist, renowned for his deeply expressive work influenced by the natural world, his native Irish language and homeland. His diverse body of work spans film scores, theatre productions, dance performances, and three critically celebrated solo albums. A prolific collaborator, Colm has toured internationally, continually blending traditional and contemporary styles in his compositions. Raised in a musically rich household—his father a renowned broadcaster, song collector and Sean Nós singer and his mother a talented pianist—his work is a reflection of his cultural heritage and artistic upbringing.

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Paddy Woodworth (Bray, 1951) is an author, journalist, lecturer and tour guide. He contributes regularly to The Irish Times on environmental issues, and broadcasts ‘The Naturalist’s Bookshelf’ on Culture File for RTE lyric fm on his favourite nature books. He has published two acclaimed books on the Basque Country. In 2013, he published a study of ecological restoration projects worldwide, and in Ireland, Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century (U of Chicago Press). A BioScience reviewer wrote: “Highly readable. This book will bring the concept and application of ecological restoration to a broader audience and will help inspire a new generation of restoration practitioners and researchers”. It includes a chapter on the migration of his favourite bird, the crane. He partners Muhammad Achour on Sanctuary in Nature & Heritage, a project that introduces asylum seekers, refugees and migrants to Irish natural and cultural heritage sites, and offers them opportunities to discuss their own heritages with Irish people.