Introduction

Summary

This chapter introduces the book by placing it in a wider historiographical context, first in terms of an older body of work on the Catholic Church’s finances, second in terms of an emerging material focus in Irish religious history, and finally in terms of a wider new trend towards ‘intimate economic history’. It outlines the aims and driving questions of the study and, by way of a methodological discussion, explains the personal origins of the study, musing on how the historian’s own background and relationship to their subject matter influences their work. It ends by outlining the content of each chapter.