ABSTRACT
This chapter provides brief illustrations of how the folkloric influences in their female characters have made such bold expression possible. More attention will be paid to examples where the folk-women versus authority connection have been less evident in Eilis Ni Dhuibhne's and Mary Lavin's fiction. Ni Dhuibhne's magical folk women challenge erroneous and limiting assumptions about women in conjunction with patriarchal authority, whether from Irish males, remnants of colonial pressure, or the state. Examples to be drawn on here include the unnamed young wife who enters the Otherworld in search of her enchanted husband in "The Search for the Lost Husband", a futuristic "witch/wizard" who revives the worst traits of English colonists, and the elderly Irish woman "changeling" who defies her in The Bray House. The strong personalities of folk women enable them to speak more boldly while still holding the audience's attention.
