Kilrush

Kilrush Irish:Cill Rois
Town
Kilrush town centre
Coat of arms
Kilrush Location in Ireland
Coordinates:52.640°N 9.486°W/52.640; -9.486
Country	Ireland
Province	Munster
County	County Clare
Elevation	17 m (56 ft)
Population (2016)
• Total	2,719
Time zone	UTC±0(WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1(IST)
Eircoderouting key	V15
Telephone area code	+353(0)65
Irish Grid Reference	Q992554
Website	www.kilrush.ie

Kilrush(Irish:Cill Rois,meaning 'Church of the Woods') is a coastal town inCounty Clare,Ireland.It is also the name of acivil parishand anecclesiastical parishinRoman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe.It is located near the mouth of theRiver Shannonin the south-west of the county. Kilrush is one of the listed Heritage Towns of Ireland. The area was officially classified as part of the West ClareGaeltacht,anIrish-speakingcommunity, until 1956.

History

Kilrush Town Hall

Kilrush has existed since the 16th Century but an older church ruin at the local churchyard suggests a much older history. It is thought the name Cill Rois is derived from Church of the Wood, which would fit with the church ruins location.

Of Dutch origin, the Vandeleur family became the most prominent landlord family in West Clare. The Vandeleurs settled in the area, as tenants to the Earl of Thomond on land at Ballynote, Kilrush, in about 1656. Giles, the first Vandeleur in the area was the father of the Rev. John Vandeleur who was appointed prebend of Iniscathaigh in March 1687. He was buried at Kilrush in 1727. In 1749, John Vandeleur, son of the Rev. John, purchased lands in West Clare to the value of £9,826.0.6, from the fortune that had been acquired as one of the Commissioners for applotting quit rents in Ireland. It was not until the 18th century that the town underwent major development. This development coincided with the succession ofJohn Ormsby Vandeleuras the wealthiest landlord in the district. He designed the layout of the town and many of the present-day street names derive from Vandeleur family names. John Ormsby Vandeleur also built the large family home, Kilrush House, in 1808.

John Ormsby Vandeleur owned much of Kilrush. With wealth achieved from a financially beneficial marriage and some political manoeuvring, 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. Buildings which Vandeleur commissioned includedKilrush Town Hall,completed in 1808.

TheNapoleonic 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 betweenLimerickand Kilrush. The increasing popularity ofKilkeeas a bathing resort brought many transit travellers to Kilrush.

Monument to theManchester Martyrsin the town

In 1837Samuel Lewisdescribed Kilrush as a seaport, market and post town. The main industries, chiefly for home consumption, wereflannels,stockingsand bundle cloth. The main trade was corn, butter, pigs, agricultural products and hides. There were works for refiningrock saltfor 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 courthouse in 1831.

However, thefamineyears (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. This was later vividly dramatised in a radio programme.In the late 1880s, the Vandeleur name became synonymous with the worst of landlord evictions. The Kilrush workhouse witnessed terrible deprivation and deaths. By that stage, Hector Vandeleur was the lord of the manor.

Irish Eviction Vandeleur estate-T.Birmingham's house, Moyasta, County Clare with Battering Ram and soldiers outside July 1888

Kilrush commercially survived the setbacks of the Great Famine to a great extent as a result of the arrival of theWest Clare Railwaytowards the end of the 19th century, developed into a bustling market town. There is a 1500-year-old monastic settlement atScattery Islandin the Shannon estuary which is about 15 minutes from Kilrush by boat. The settlement was founded bySt. Senan.It features one of the oldest and tallest round towers in Ireland.

Kilrush today

The old port of Kilrush is now home to a 120 berth marina with automatic lock gate access to theShannon Estuary,Scattery Island and the wild Atlantic Ocean. An impressive walled garden on the grounds of the old Vandeleur estate can still be visited today, though Kilrush House was gutted by fire in the late 19th century and finally demolished in the 1970s due to safety hazard. It stood where the main central car park now stands.

The nearbyMoneypoint power stationbegan construction in 1979 and was commissioned between 1985 and 1987. This brought a large economic boost to the town and wider region, with Moneypoint establishing itself as one of the primary employers in West Clare. However, due to a governmental climate change plan to cease burning coal in Moneypoint by 2025, electricity production has fallen massively, at times producing nothing.In 2019, it was announced that the workforce would be cut by more than half, raising fears for the economic health of the area.

The retail scene of Kilrush has changed massively in recent times, being almost unrecognizable to 2 decades previous. Large retailers such as Tesco (Opened 2008)) and Aldi (Opened 2009)have opened in the town, however a significant amount of smaller retailers have closed since the turn of the decade, almost decimating streets such as Moore Street.

Kilrush was the host venue for the 2013 National Famine Commemoration.

Offshore resides a large pod ofBottlenose dolphinswho are resident year-round in the estuary.Dolphin-watching tour boats depart daily from the Kilrush marina, and the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation has an information centre nearby.

Kilrush has beentwinnedwith the town ofPlouzanéin Brittany, France since 1982.

In 2015, Kilrush won an Entente Florale gold medal,a European-wide horticultural and environmental competition. Kilrush represented Ireland in the ‘Village’ category of the competition for population centres of less than 5,000 people.

Sport

Current sport

The town has an 18-hole golf course on the Ennis Road. The Western Yacht Club has in the last decades been rejuvenated, being one of the oldest yacht clubs in the world.

Tennis, football (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 Clubis 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. The club was founded in 1886 and has recorded 21 county titles. Kilrush is home to the West Clare Triathlon Club, a multi-discipline sports club, which trains and competes in the following sports – swimming, cycling and running.

Kilrush was the birthplace of a number of renowned sportspeople listed in the Notable People section below.

Former Sport

A short livedgreyhound racingtrack operated from 1947 until 1950.A licence was granted on 1 October 1946 and the track opened on 31 May 1947, on the Cooraclare Road.

Schools

Kilrush has two primary schools and one secondary school. St. Senans NS is an English speaking school, the other is an Irish speakingGaelscoil,which is called Gaelscoil Uí Choimin. The secondary school is calledKilrush Community School.

Transport

Kilrush is on theN67(Galway–Tarbert) andN68(Ennis– Kilrush). Kilrush is about 30 minutes drive from Ennis (40 km). Close by is a ferry betweenKillimerand Tarbert (County Kerry). The town is serviced by bus routes run by Bus Éireann and Clare Bus. The nearest airport isShannon Airport.

Kilrush was once one of the twinterminiof theWest Clare RailwayfromEnnis,the neighbouring town ofKilkeebeing the other (seeIrish railway history). The railway closed in 1961 but a short section of the railway has been re-opened at Moyasta as a tourist attraction. One of the original steam engines on the route, the Slieve Callan has been lovingly restored.

Kilrush Creek Marina is at the Atlantic Ocean end of theShannon Estuary,with its lock gates providing protection from the tidal estuary.

People

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1821	3,465	—
1831	3,966	+14.5%
1841	5,071	+27.9%
1851	4,471	−11.8%
1861	4,593	+2.7%
1871	4,424	−3.7%
1881	3,805	−14.0%
1891	4,095	+7.6%
1901	4,179	+2.1%
1911	3,666	−12.3%
1926	3,345	−8.8%
1936	3,426	+2.4%
1946	3,351	−2.2%
1951	3,154	−5.9%
1956	3,000	−4.9%
1961	2,861	−4.6%
1966	2,734	−4.4%
1971	2,671	−2.3%
1981	2,753	+3.1%
1986	2,961	+7.6%
1991	2,740	−7.5%
1996	2,594	−5.3%
2002	2,699	+4.0%
2006	2,657	−1.6%
2011	2,695	+1.4%
2016	2,719	+0.9%

• Lawrence 'Larry' Quinlivan Bulger(1870–1928), Irishrugby unionplayer, athlete and doctor, and his older brothers and fellow sportsmenMichael Bulger(1867–1938) andDaniel Delany Bulger(1865–1930) were from Moore Street, Kilrush, where their father, Daniel Scanlan Bulger (1831–1904), was a woollen merchant and draper and ran a loan office.
• David Comyn(1854-1907) was an Irish language revivalist from Kilrush parish, where his name is commemorated in the title of Gaelscoil Uí Choimín
• Mrs. Elizabeth Crotty (née Markham)(1885–1960), concertina player, was from Gower near Kilrush, where she and her husband ran Crotty's pub on the Market Square.
• Thomas A. Cullinan(1838–1904), city marshal of Junction City, Kansas from 1871 to 1904, was born in Kilrush to well-to-do parents.
• Thomas Cusack(1858–1926), ChicagoDemocratUS RepresentativefromIllinois4th District, 1899–1901, was born in Kilrush.
• Colm de Bhailís(1796–1906), poet, songwriter and stonemason, travelled extensively throughout Ireland and is believed to have lived for some time in Kilrush.
• Joe Jacob(b. 1939),Fianna Fáilpolitician, was born in Kilrush.
• General SirThomas Kelly-KennyGCB GCVO (1840–1914), son of Mathew Kelly Esq. D.L of Kilrush, was one of the most senior officers in the British Army as Adjutant-General to the British Forces.
• Sir Arthur Edward KennedyGCMG CB (1809–1883) was Poor Law Inspector in Kilrush Poor Law Union, from November 1847 to September 1850.
• Charles Lever(1806–1872), novelist, briefly practised medicine in Kilrush as a young doctor, around the time of the 1832 Cholera epidemic.The character of Father Tom Loftus in Lever's novelJack Hintonwas based on Father Michael Comyn, Parish Priest of the nearby Kilkee and Killard parishes.
• Joe McDermott(b. 1940), professional golfer and winner of the Irish Senior Open in 1998, was born in Kilrush, where his parents Thomas and Annie McDermott ran a pub, shoeshop andIrish Hospitals' Sweepstakeagency on the Market Square.
• Fr. John O'Brien(1931–2008), founder of the St. James's Choir, was born in Kilrush, where his father Michael O'Brien had a pub on the Market Square.
• Richard Barry O'Brien(1847–1918), historian, journalist, writer and biographer ofParnell,was born in Kilrush.
• Joe Riley (b. 1943) author of Ghosts of Kilrush, an autobiographical account of life in Kilrush in the 1940s.
• Michael Talty(1857–1957), head porter and guard in Kilrush on theWest Clare Railway,has been immortalised byPercy Frenchin the songAre Ye Right There Michael.
• Michael Tubridy(b. 1935), original member ofThe Chieftains,was born in Kilrush, and lived on O'Dea's Road.
• Captain Michael 'Mick' Tubridy(1923–1954), international showjumper and All Ireland winning footballer withCork.
• The siblings andIrishLabour Partypoliticians,Pat Upton(1944–1999) andMary Upton(b. 1946), were born in Kilrush.

Catholic parish

Main article:Kilrush (parish)

Civil parish

There are 40townlandsin Kilrush civil parish.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland
• List of RNLI stations
• Market Houses in Ireland

External links

• "Kilrush, Placenames Database of Ireland".Retrieved31 December2017.
• Kilrush.ie
• Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife FoundationArchived26 August 2007 at theWayback Machine
• Kilrush and District Historical Society
• "Photos of St Senan's Church Kilrush".Kilrush Parish.Retrieved1 April2014.