So ran a typical announcement for a marriage within the eighteenth-century Irish elite. Though comparatively brief, it exposes a great deal regarding contemporary attitudes towards such unions and women's place within them. From this short paragraph can be gleaned details of the social, financial and personal attributes sought in a prospective spouse, the importance of the marriage not just to the couple, but to their families, and the legal subordination of women within the entire process (note the absence of the bride's first name and of any mention of her mother or mother-in-law).

For all that they revealed, published announcements such as this concealed much more, for they gave only brief, sanitised and businesslike views of an event which was merely the end-point of a long and often much more complex journey. They said nothing of the months, sometimes years, of delicate negotiations which had taken place in order to bring a union about, omitted the stories of frustrated hopes and failed engagements, glossed over the less attractive qualities of many a bride and groom, and disguised the reality of women's input into their own marriages and the marriages of others. It is this more rounded view of how matches were mooted and made which will be provided here. Using the Irish elite's own words, this chapter will trace the customs and legalities which surrounded unions from courtship to altar to (occasionally), separation and divorce.

Past scholars have done much to pave the way for such a task, and the historiography on early modern English marriage is particularly strong.