Add to ORKGThis article focuses on the motif of quest in contemporary Irish women’s short stories, in particular those published in the 1980s and 90s by Clare Boylan, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Stella Mahon, Mary Dorcey and Marilyn McLaughlin. In these stories women, through the agency of various catalysts, attain a kind of enlightenment or “awakening” which leads them to strive to subvert or transcend the social norm or to reconcile with residual trauma from their past. This awakening process is a consequence of an inner journey of self development which takes place while engaging with society in order to renegotiate their place within that society. Irish women’s stories are, in general, characterised by an undercurrent of anger, rebellion and subversion wi...