Following the recent advancements in Irish lesbian politics, North and South, lesbian writing is attracting more attention from scholarly audiences, making this body of work particularly timely. Irish Lesbian Writing Across Time is an attestation of a historical presence of lesbians in Irish literature, as it analyses the progression of Irish lesbian narrative over the past two centuries, while verifying key characteristics of time periods that correspond with the model of development. It also investigates Irish lesbian activist literature, writing from diaspora, and fiction published around the time of the decriminalisation of homosexual acts and later the inclusion of same-sex marriage in Irish and Northern Irish laws.

The book examines authors such as Maria Edgeworth, Sarah Grand, George Egerton, Elizabeth Bowen, Kate O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, Emma Donoghue, Mary Dorcey, Anna Livia, Shani Mootoo, and Hilary McCollum, whose inclusion of lesbian desire to the Irish literary canon proves an invaluable contribution.