ABSTRACT
Lesbianism in Ireland at the beginning of the 2020s is no longer considered exceptional, in either a social/cultural or literary sense, and both legal and cultural changes in Irish society have validated this fact. The normalcy of certain aspects of queer culture, as aided by legislative improvements for the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Ireland, is reflected in contemporary Irish fiction. Northern Ireland has produced a slim amount of lesbian fiction in comparison with its southern neighbour. Unsurprisingly, it is in contemporary fiction that lesbian themes are to be most easily located. Northern Irish lesbian fiction could still be said to inhabit a space of queer liminality that seeks to examine prevailing cultural attitudes towards lesbians. Queer in Southern Irish fiction, however, carries quite a different resonance, as a certain expression of queer identity become increasingly conventional and socially acceptable.
