'The poorest country that one can know.' according to a Vatican report from the mid-nineteenth century, was Ireland. It was to this country, beset with a variety of problems that Paul Cullen, having spent almost thirty years in Rome, returned in 1850. For twentyeight years this ecclesiastic, who was destined to become Ireland's first ever Cardinal, dominated Irish ecclesiastical and religious life. His influence in Church affairs was so great that his achievements have been described as 'the Cullenisation of Ireland.'