[1] There is a townland on the southern edge of the town called Poulawillin or Pollawillin (from Irish Poll a' Mhuillinn, meaning 'hole/pool of the mill').

On 14 April 1920 the local population were celebrating the release of hunger strikers from Mountjoy Prison.

It turned into the Shooting at Canada Cross when members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Royal Highland Infantry Regiment fired into the crowd wounding seven and killing three: Volunteer John O’Loughlan and two civilians Thomas O’Leary and Patrick Hennessy.

On 22 September 1920, a RIC tender was ambushed there by the Mid-Clare Brigade of the IRA mainly in retaliation for the killing of Martin Devitt at Crow's Bridge earlier in the year.

[5] Milltown Malbay was served by the West Clare Railway, which operated from the 2 July 1887 and finally closed on 1 February 1961.

St Joseph's draws pupils from the parishes of Milltown Malbay, Kilmurry Ibrickane, Doonbeg, Inagh and Cooraclare.

The town is in the parish of Kilfarboy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe, which covers Milltown Malbay and Moy.

Its stated goal is "the establishment of an institute for education in the traditional culture of Clare, directed primarily towards the higher education and lifelong learning sectors; the provision of a permanent, easily accessible, archive and library for material relevant to the traditional arts in general and, in particular, to the abundant material of local relevance; the provision of a performance centre and associated facilities.

[17][18][19][20] The lowest point for the Clare Senior Football team came in the 1979 Munster Championship which is locally known as the 'Miltown Massacre'.

During a game played in Hennessy Park, the Clare inter-county team lost to Kerry by a scoreline of 1–09 (12) to 9–21 (48), a difference of thirty-six points.