A visit to Kilrush, Co. Clare in 2014

A slideshow of photos I took during my visit to Kilrush in County Clare on Friday 13th June 2014.
Kilrush (Irish: Cill Rois, meaning "Church of the Woods") is a coastal town in the west of County Clare. It is located near the mouth of the River Shannon in the south-west of the county. Kilrush is one of the listed Heritage Towns of Ireland. It is on the Wild Atlantic Way.
Kilrush has existed since the 16th century but it was not until the 18th century that it underwent major development. This development coincided with the succession of John Ormsby Vandeleur as the wealthiest landlord in the district. Of Dutch origin, the Vandeleur family was the most prominent landlord family in West Clare. They designed the layout of the town and many of the present day street names derive from Vandeleur family names.
John Ormsby Vandeleur built the large family home, Kilrush House in 1808. He owned much of Kilrush. With wealth achieved from a financially beneficial marriage and some political skulduggery, he decided to develop the town. A Scots businessman James Paterson, who had been a gunboat lieutenant until 1802, assisted him in this project. Paterson entered the oats trade in west Clare and in 1802 he was given a site on the square from Vandeleur and erected a six-storey building.
The Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) led to an improvement in agricultural prices. As Kilrush and the neighbouring countryside began to prosper, Hely Dutton reported in 1808 that the town was 'rising fast into some consequence'. He also acknowledged Paterson's role as a 'very active and intelligent inhabitant, who has been of the utmost benefit to Kilrush, and the adjoining counties'. In 1812 Paterson went into the shipping business and by 1817 he had a steamboat operating regularly between Limerick and Kilrush. The increasing popularity of Kilkee as a bathing resort brought many transit travellers to Kilrush.
In 1837 Samuel Lewis described Kilrush as a seaport, market and post town. The main industries, chiefly for home consumption, were flannels, stockings and bundle cloth. The main trade was corn, butter, pigs, agricultural products and hides. There were works for refining rock salt for domestic use, a tan-yard, a soap factory and a nail factory. Branches of the national and agricultural banks had been opened in the town and a constabulary police force was also stationed there. A small prison was built in 1825 and a court house in 1831.
However the famine years (1845-1849) brought much hardship to Kilrush. Famine, evictions, fever and cholera reduced the population of south-west Clare to such an extent that it never again attained its pre-famine numbers. In the post-famine era, the Vandeleur name became synonymous with the worst of landlord evictions, with over 20,000 evicted in the Kilrush Union. The Kilrush workhouse witnessed terrible deprivation and deaths. By that stage Hector Vandeleur had succeeded John Ormsby Vandeleur.
Kilrush survived these setbacks and with the arrival of the West Clare Railway towards the end of the 19th century, developed into a bustling market town. There is a 1500 year old monastic settlement at Scattery Island in the Shannon estuary which is about 15 minutes from Kilrush by boat. The settlement was founded by St. Senan. It features one of the oldest and tallest round towers in Ireland.
The old port of Kilrush is now home to a 120 berth marina with lock gate access to the Shannon Estuary and the Atlantic Ocean. An impressive walled garden on the grounds of the old Vandeleur estate can still be visited today, though their home was gutted by fire in the late 19th century.
Kilrush hosted the 2013 National Famine Commemoration.
Offshore resides a large pod of Bottlenose dolphins who are resident year-round in the estuary.
Kilrush has been twinned with the town of Plouzané in Brittany, France since 1982.
The town has an 18 hole golf course on the Ennis Road. The Western Yacht Club has in the last decade been rejuvenated, being one of the oldest yacht clubs in the world.
Tennis, soccer and athletics are catered for at the Cooraclare Road complex (under age and junior clubs). The rugby club is based on the Doonbeg Road. Kilrush Shamrocks GAA Club was founded in 1886 and is located on the Killimer Road. The ground, Captain Tubridy Memorial Park is traditionally called "The Cricket Field", since it was used for that sport during the 19th century.
Kilrush is on the N67 Kilcolgan - Tarbert road and N68 Ennis - Kilrush road. Close by is a ferry between Killimer and Tarbert in County Kerry. Bus Éireann routes 333 and 336 serve Kilrush. The nearest airport is Shannon Airport.
Kilrush was once one of the twin termini of the West Clare Railway from Ennis, the neighbouring town of Kilkee being the other. The railway closed in 1961 but a short section of the railway has been re-opened at Moyasta as a tourist attraction.
St. Senan's Roman Catholic Church in Kilrush was built between 1839 and 1840.

[@marynadononeill]

Great write up!