From Furze to Flame: Drawing Stories from our Uplands

Discover how ancient burning practices, wild plants, and disappearing traditions still shape our cultural landscape. Join us with artist-in-residence Shane Finan for a public talk on his fascinating work with FIRECULT, (https://jpi-climate.eu/project/firecult/ ) an international project exploring how wildfire impacts cultural heritage. Shane delves into Irish upland traditions—particularly the historic burning of aiteann (furze/gorse)—and how fire was once both a tool and a symbol in rural life. From folklore to flora, he transforms aiteann and sitka spruce into drawing charcoal to tell a story of loss, resilience, and renewal.

Wildfire is a natural earth system process in close interactive relationship with human activity since prehistoric times, that has shaped cultural landscapes and defined ways of life. Humans use fire to modify their landscape, clear land for agriculture and development and replenish soil nutrients.

At the same time, fire's destructive power endangers livelihoods and landscapes. Anthropogenic climate change disrupts the fine balance between wildfire and humans, directly through its influence on the natural environment and indirectly by impacting on societal structures and behaviours, threatening tangible and intangible cultural heritage. To this day, there is little understanding on the role of wildfire in damaging or creating cultural heritage.