The IRA leaders in Dublin marked Dromoland Castle for destruction. However, sabotage orders were reversed at the last minute at the urgent request of local IRA leaders in County Clare, who argued that the Inchiquin Lords had been fair and benevolent in dealing with their tenant farmers. Sir Lucius O’Brien, the 13th Baron of Inchiquin (brother of Sir William Smith O’Brien), was remembered respectfully by the people of County Clare for his relief work in the famine years of the 1840s.
1940-1962