Meet the Vandeleur family, who made Kilrush their home in the mid 17^th century. They lived in luxury in Kilrush House, designed the streetscape of Kilrush as we know it, funded building projects, provided local employment and were landlords to many local families who lived on and worked their lands.

However, their name is also associated with a dark chapter in the area’s history; the mass evictions that began in the 1840’s during the famine period and carried on into the Land War years of the late 1880s, when the local people started to speak up against rack rents, mass evictions and an absentee landlord. With the local military on the side of the Vandeleurs, the result of this was brutal for the local people. Families were forcibly removed from their homes by the military, left on the side of the road and their homes knocked or burnt to the ground. Similar events happened all over Ireland at this time.