During the Civil War, Clare had the lowest rate of fatalities of any Munster county, and the level of conflict there was comparable to, or less than, most Leinster counties during the same period.

The life span of John Clare (1793–1864) runs from Pitt to Palmerston, Washington to Lincoln, Blake and Burns to Trollope and Tennyson; yet the essential features of his world were contained within a ...