Q 01/05

In which city was Oscar Wilde born in 1854?

A) London

B) Dublin

C) Cork

D) Edinburgh

Answer · why

B) Dublin

Dublin was home until Oxford: born at 21 Westland Row, he grew up on Merrion Square, where his mother hosted a leading literary salon.

Q 02/05

Under what pen name did Wilde's mother Jane write poetry for the Young Irelanders?

A) Fidelia

B) Aurora

C) Erin

D) Speranza

Answer · why

D) Speranza

Speranza is Italian for 'hope'. Under the name she went beyond verse, using the nationalist paper The Nation to urge Irishmen to rise in arms against ...

Q 03/05

What was the profession of Wilde's father, Sir William Wilde?

A) Newspaper editor

B) Antiquarian bookseller

C) Chancery barrister

D) Ear and eye surgeon

Answer · why

D) Ear and eye surgeon

Ear and eye surgeon Sir William Wilde was knighted in 1864. That December a former patient's accusations against him ended in a libel trial, where she...

Q 04/05

How did Wilde's two elder half-sisters Mary and Emily die in 1871?

A) Their carriage overturned on a hill

B) An outbreak of typhus fever

C) A boating accident on Lough Corrib

D) Their dresses caught fire at a dance

Answer · why

D) Their dresses caught fire at a dance

Their dresses caught fire at a dance, a ball at a County Monaghan country house: a sister's dress brushed an open flame as she danced, and both were s...

Q 05/05

Wilde's poem 'Requiescat' was written in memory of whom?

A) A school friend who died young

B) His father, Sir William Wilde

C) His half-sister Emily

D) His sister Isola, who died aged nine

Answer · why

D) His sister Isola, who died aged nine

His sister Isola, who died aged nine, was buried in County Longford in 1867. Wilde decorated an envelope to hold a lock of her hair and kept it until ...