Kilrush is located near the mouth of the River Shannon in the South West of County Clare. It is one of the listed Heritage Towns of Ireland.

Kilrush was described in 1837 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.