Search
07 Sept 2025
Search
07 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Families observing the flaura in Garvagh Forest.
On Saturday, the Hare’s Corner Cooperative hosted a Spring Flowers Walk in Garvagh Forest to kick off their 18-month-long program called ‘The Forest Did It First’.
The organisation was officially created a year and a half ago and aims to reconnect with nature through artistic movements and initiatives.
Throughout the walk, explanations were given by a wildflowers specialist and participants were able to create bluebells out of paper or cardboard.
The Hare’s Corner Cooperative was first funded by the National Lottery and was originally called the Garvagh People’s Forest Project.
Karin Eyben, a member of the Hare’s Corner Cooperative said that the old project was all about ‘noticing the relationships people have with their forest and then building on the best of those relationships’.
“We did lots of different community arts creatives and it was all really about being outdoors in the forest and how it changes how we look at things and look at each other,” said Karin.
When this project ended and the funding ran out, they decided to create the ‘cooperative’ 18 months ago to work towards a common purpose.
“I think it's really interesting how cooperatives grow, particularly at times of political economic crisis,” said Karin.
“There's something for me that at moments of crisis, cooperatives emerge as a real movement and moment of possibilities of change.”
The organisation regroups artists, creators, and makers interested in understanding and living with nature more intimately.
The name, Hare’s Corner Cooperative, comes from an old Irish Farming expression that refers to the edges of a field that are left to nature and that haven’t been intensively farmed.
In these small ‘awkward’ places Karin explains that there are ‘a lot of biodiversity, hares and animals where life can flourish and return’.
The Hare’s Corner Cooperative is now located in the grounds of the former Garvagh High School.
“We have a filmmaker, a baker, a woodworker, outdoor learning educators and we also have three or four young people, so it's an intergenerational platform,” she continued.
The Cooperative have just commenced an 18-month project called ‘The Forest Did It First’ which is inspired by biomimicry.
Biomimicry is the ability to learn and observe nature to solve human challenges.
“It is about recognising that in the natural world, species have come up with solutions that we can perhaps learn from in order to solve our own challenges,” explained Karin.
“It is all about the natural world being the source of inspiration and design and structure and innovation.”
She also explains that over the years, humankind might have lost some of that ability.
“For example, shark skin is structured in a way to propel off bacteria and so many hospital surfaces have mimicked the shark skin, which means they don't have to use as many antiseptics and chemicals.”
One part of the project ‘The Forest Did It First’ is to reconnect with nature, the rivers, and fire through walks and talks.
The Cooperative has what they call a ‘phantom artist’ leaving pieces of art in natural space to get people curious and get them looking for these objects.
During the wildflower walk, Karin explained that they created bluebells made out of paper and that their phantom artist might decide to put some of these in the forest.
“People might start noticing the bluebells and protecting [the real plant].
“It is using art to kind of help people think differently.”
During the Easter weekend, mystery signs about wildflowers were planted by the Garvagh Forest’s phantom artist.
Their official website is under construction, but they can be contacted via their social media page in the meantime.
Karin hopes people will go and look for different art hidden in Garvagh Forest and take photos or videos and post them online to participate in the mystery around these pieces of art using the hashtag #GarvaghForestPhantomArtist
Upcoming events:
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
