Since earliest times, humanity has adapted and harnessed natural resources to produce what is needed for daily life, developing production and manufacturing processes of varying complexity to meet different circumstances. A number of these processes formed the basis of traditional cottage industries that emerged in post-medieval Ireland. Enterprises such as butter, woollens, linen, and lace-making, among others, diversified the economy beyond agriculture and are the subject of this book. Importantly, they also generated supplementary incomes that sustained numerous families. Men and boys carried out many of the more labor-intensive tasks, while women and girls were prominently engaged in the skill-based cottage industries.

This book presents a consolidated perspective of the characteristic features and processes employed in specific cottage industries, which are documented in an extensive range of historical, archaeological, and economic publications. Notably, the processes used in a number of these cottage industries foreshadowed the technological development of industrial manufacturing in later centuries.