Anna’s flowering flair earns her place in ‘Wise Woman’ portrait series

Mullingar flower farmer, Anna Browne, has been named as one of 13 women featured in ‘Bean Feasa’, a national portrait series co-created by award-winning photographer Evanna Devine, Tóchar Midlands Wetland Restoration and Photo Museum Ireland.

Anna’s selection was based on her unique approach to sustainable farming, habitat restoration, education and community engagement.

Bean Feasa, meaning wise woman, celebrates women helping to restore, protect and reimagine nature across Ireland.

Based in Mullingar, Anna manages 17.5 hectares of continuous cover forestry planted in 1995 and at her home in Mullingar demonstrates how a suburban garden can be both productive and biodiverse.

Through ‘Big Sky Flowers’, she promotes low-carbon, pesticide-free flower production while restoring meadows, establishing native woodlands and hedgerows, and supporting pollinator populations.

Anna is a member of Flower Farmers of Ireland and Talamh Beo and was awarded a 2026 Creative Practitioners residency with Westmeath County Council. Through that grant, she uses flowers to spark conversations on biodiversity, pollinators, the global flower industry, seed saving, composting, and soil health.

Anna also contributes to national biodiversity monitoring through rare species surveys at Lough Ree and regularly delivers workshops focused on biodiversity, composting, seed saving and growing sustainably.

She is widely recognised as an advocate for nature-friendly farming and was previously highlighted as an RTÉ Climate Hero for her environmental work.

According to the organisers, Anna’s selection recognises the innovative way she combines farming, conservation, education and community engagement.

Speaking about her nomination, Anna said: “I’d like to use the opportunity to draw attention to pollinators, to Irish grown flowers as an alternative to imported flowers, and the importance of growing food, fuel, and fibres locally and regeneratively.”

Evanna Devine was awarded the €15,000 Bean Feasa Photography Commission following an international open call. As the national centre for contemporary photography, Photo Museum Ireland is supporting the development, production and curation of the work, including access to its specialist image-processing facilities. The completed series will be presented, along with a bespoke publication, at Photo Museum Ireland later this year before touring nationally.

The Bean Feasa exhibition forms part of the wider work of Tóchar Midlands Wetland Restoration, one of Ireland’s largest nature restoration initiatives. The project reflects Tóchar’s commitment to ensuring that nature restoration is recognised not only as an environmental challenge but also, as a social movement driven by people working within their communities.

Tóchar Midlands Wetland Restoration is one of the largest restoration projects currently under way. It is a three-year, €12 million wetlands restoration project co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund Programme.

The commissioned portraits will form part of a public exhibition and publication launching in November 2026 before touring nationally.