My interest in William Conolly began while still a child growing up in Celbridge and developed further while working as a student in Castletown during my undergraduate days, but the research and writing of this book only began six years ago. Over that time I have incurred many debts. First and foremost I wish to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Centre for Historic Irish Houses and Landed Estates, NUI Maynooth. The latter not only provided generous financial support, but also wonderful office space in Castletown in 2008 where some of the writing and research for this book was done in the most appropriate setting possible. I also wish to acknowledge the generous grants provided by the Esme Mitchell Trust and the Grace Lawless Lee Trust, Trinity College Dublin towards the publication of this book.

I am very grateful to the staff of all the libraries and archives I visited during my research, particularly David Griffin and his colleagues in the Irish Architectural Archive who made the then uncatalogued Castletown Papers easily accessible to me. I am also indebted to the Castletown Foundation, and especially their director Christopher Moore for granting me permission to use and cite the Castletown Papers. Special thanks are also due to Anthony Malcomson for all I have learnt working with him while cataloguing the Conolly Papers under the auspices of the Irish Manuscript Commission. Several scholars including Robert Armstrong, Lisa-Marie Griffith, David Hayton and Ivar McGrath have read earlier drafts of this work and offered perceptive criticism and advice over a long period of time for which I am very grateful. I am especially grateful to Professor David Dickson for his vast knowledge, enduring support, advice and direction without which completing this project would have been impossible

My colleagues, past and present, in Trinity College Dublin, NUI Maynooth and University College Dublin have offered support, encouragement and most importantly coffee. Thanks to Juliana Adelman, Johanna Archbold, Roisin Berry, Ian Campbell, Niamh Cullen, Neil Johnston, Annaleigh Margey, Ciara Meehan, Tina Morin, Elaine Murphy, Jennifer O’Brien, Danielle O’Donovan, Kevin O’Sullivan, Trish Stapleton, Vanessa Ther and Ciarán Wallace.