First of all, I am starting from a working Streamzap remote in Kodi. If VLC is the first application you are setting up with the Streamzap remote then you will probably need to read the above blog post first.

Once you know you have a working remote, put the following lircrc config into /home/pi/.lircrc:

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_PLAY
  config = key-play
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_PAUSE
  config = key-pause
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_STOP
  config = key-stop
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_POWER
  config = key-quit
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_NEXT
  config = key-next
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_PREVIOUS
  config = key-prev
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_RED
  config = key-toggle-fullscreen
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_REWIND
  config = key-slower
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_FORWARD
  config = key-faster
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_VOLUMEDOWN
  config = key-vol-down
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_VOLUMEUP
  config = key-vol-up
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_BLUE
  config = key-audio-track
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_MUTE
  config = key-vol-mute
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_LEFT
  config = key-nav-left 
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_DOWN
  config = key-nav-down
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_UP
  config = key-nav-up
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_RIGHT
  config = key-nav-right
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_MENU
  config = key-nav-activate
end

begin
  prog = vlc
  button = KEY_GREEN
  config = key-subtitle-track
end

and then after starting VLC:

1. Open Tools | Preferences.
2. Select All under Show Settings in the bottom left corner.
3. Open Interface | Control Interfaces in the left side-bar.
4. Enable Infrared remote control interface.

Now you should see lirc in the text box at the bottom of Control Interfaces and the following in your ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc:

[core]
control=lirc

If you're looking to customize the above key mapping, you can find the VLC key codes in the output of vlc -H --extended | grep -- --key-.