Q 01/05

In which city was Oscar Wilde born in 1854?

A) London

B) Dublin

C) Cork

D) Edinburgh

Answer · why

B) Dublin

The house at 21 Westland Row is now the Oscar Wilde Centre of Trinity College.

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

It is Italian for 'hope'; she liked to believe, without foundation, that she had Italian ancestry.

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

His dispensary for the city's poor was the forerunner of the Eye and Ear Hospital; he was knighted for census work.

Q 04/05

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

A) A carriage overturned on a hill road

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

One brushed a candelabra or fire; her sister tried to douse the flames in the snow and burned too.

Q 05/05

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

A) A school friend at Portora

B) His father Sir William

C) His half-sister Emily

D) His sister Isola, who died aged nine

Answer · why

D) His sister Isola, who died aged nine

He called her 'a golden ray of sunshine dancing about our home'.