Join us for a panel discussion on the role of the bog in Irish culture and history, with artist Shane Hynan, academic and writer Luke Gibbons and environmental scientist Shirley Clerkin. Using the work of Beneath | Beofhód by Shane Hynan, a landmark, decade-long project as a focus for this discussion, we’ll explore the bog as a place where ecology, memory, tradition and identity intersect, reflecting on its enduring significance in Irish life and culture.

For free. For everyone.
Places limited. Booking required.

Beneath | Beofhód is a timely and in-depth engagement with urgent issues of landscape, tradition, and community. At a moment of ongoing environmental and sustainability challenges, restoring our ancient connections to the land seems more vital than ever. Hynan’s long-term focus on Irish boglands creates a profound sense of respect for the complexity of these landscapes, layered with history and continuously in flux.

Developed over a decade, Beneath | Beofhód has been supported through Photo Museum Ireland’s Artist Development Residency, supporting Hynan to expand the project’s scope and deepen its engagement with communities and landscape over time.

Panel Speakers

Shane Hynan
Shane Hynan (b. 1976) is a visual artist whose practice centres on photography, incorporating experimental elements in sound, video, collage, and sculpture. His work explores place, land, and architecture, drawing on conceptual, performative, and subjective documentary approaches. Hynan has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally and has received multiple awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Ireland, and Kildare Arts. Hynan is a recipient of the Photo Museum Ireland Artist Development Residency, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council. He is also a founding member of the Tóch | Dig collective, which was born from his experiences of overlooked and unheard voices encountered while making his Beneath | Beofhód project. He was recently selected as a finalist in the 2026 Sony World Photography Awards.

Luke Gibbons
Luke Gibbons has taught as Professor of Irish Studies at Maynooth University and the University of Notre Dame, and as Director of the MA in Film and Television Studies at Dublin City University.  His most recent book is James Joyce and the Irish Revolution (2023). He was a member of the Board of Trustees at Photo Museum Ireland (2018-24) and his other publications include Joyce’s Ghosts: Ireland, Modernism and Memory (2015), Limits of the  Visible: Representing the Great Famine (2013) Transformations in Irish Culture (1996), Edmund Burke and Ireland: Aesthetics, Politics and the Colonial Sublime (2003), and The Quiet Man (2002).

Shirley Clerkin
Shirley is the project manager of Tóchar, a wetlands restoration scheme in the midlands of Ireland that is co-ordinated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and funded through the EU Just Transition Fund.  Shirley, a committed environmental advocate, has worked for almost thirty years in the biodiversity and heritage arena, and has a passion for weaving creativity into scientific and technical initiatives. She has produced books, documentaries and short films on heritage themes. She was a member of the board of the all-island Tyrone Guthrie Centre for artists for five years.