This article is from page 33 of the 2008-03-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 33 JPG
A NEW project aimed at balancing the scales of history will take place in the Vandeleur Walled Garden this Maren tee rhs
The “Bring a Story’ open day, which aims to root out some positive stories about the often-abhorred west Clare landlord family, the Vandeleurs, will take place on the ground of their old homestead from |llam to 4pm.
The Inrush House seat of the family was burned out in 1897 and Wednes- day marks the 111th anniversary of the razing of the house.
“We are not attempting to re-write
history,’ centre manager Susanne Matejka explained. “The stigma at- tached to the Vandeleur family as cruel landlords has lived on in the folk memory of west Clare and the burned-out ruins of Kilrush House stood as a reminder of those op- pressed times right up to 1972 when the shell of the great house was de- molished in the interests of public SAAS
“Yet in the 89 years that it survived, Kilrush House was a landmark in west Clare and an outstanding exam- ple of the great houses of the time. As home to the military and political family, which owned most of Kil-
rush and built most of its civic build- ings, the building of Kilrush House under the direction of Crofton Van- deleur was completed in 1808. It was built on classical style rising to three floors over a basement and with 86 windows which were a feature of the building,’ said Ms Matejka.
“We would like to balance up the bad taste which was left by the Van- deleur landlords by gathering what- ever positive information we can,” she added. “As the Vandeleur era is now more than a century distant, we are hoping that locals will have sto- ries which were passed down to them through the older generations.
“We will have people on hand on the day to record the stories or make arrangements to have them docu- mented. Depending on the response, we would also envisage assembling the stories in a publication.”
Ms Matejka is also interested in collecting pictures of Kilrush House before and after the burning and any other memorabilia connected to the Vandeleur estate.
Local people and any other inter- ested parties are invited to attend the centre free of charge for a coffee and an exchange of stories. Information can also be emailed to info@vandele urwalledgarden.ie