Oscar Wilde

Oscar: saol déthoiseach

Baineann saothair liteartha Wilde níos mó le seomraí suite galánta Shasana ná le saol na hÉireann, cé gur Gael bródúil ba ea é.

Oscar Wilde’s British Library reading pass reissued 130 years after confiscation

Pass was taken from Irish playwright following his 1895 conviction for gross indecency

Horrible Histories author Terry Deary: ‘If you think the present is horrible then you should try living even 70 years ago’

Deary talks about his new book for adults, rebellion, the cushie present day, and ‘wanting to create something worthwhile’

Children’s fiction: New and reprinted titles from Mary Murphy, Raymond Briggs, Oscar Wilde and more

A fearless explorer arrives on Earth, postwar childhood tales and classics to bewitch a new generation

In Extremis review: Intriguing footnote from Oscar Wilde’s final days of freedom

Neil Bartlett’s play imagines Wilde’s meeting, just before his trial, with the society palmist Mrs Robinson

Let’s face it ‘reach for the stars’ is not a very Irish mantra

Many disabled artists would opt for the ‘humble’ option of requesting lesser or no payment for work. Reaching for the stars is too risky

Bookish breaks: Get inspired with these literary destinations, from Castletownshend to the French Riviera

To celebrate Bloomsday on June 16th, we explore spots that inspired famous writers to create their classics

Red into the record – Frank McNally on Peadar O’Donnell’s libel case against the Irish Rosary magazine

The trial had its origins in the ‘Red Scare’ general election of 1932

Author Lisa Harding: ‘I have never been scared to look at the dark side of life’

The novelist on her latest book, Wildelings; her penchant for unlikeable characters; and how her acting background is a boon to her writing

Charm offensive: The close personal encounters with charmers that leave us uneasy

We know charm is routinely weaponised in politics, business and personal relationships. Still, we’re not always immune to charming people, and maybe we don’t want to be

Twist by Colum McCann: Surprising and electric, a wired-up story of what it means to bend yourself into new shapes

A novel that rolls across continents on seas of emotion that find their form in glorious passages of writing

An Irishman at Oxford: It was an education in being an outsider. I felt alienated from the very start

The good, the bad and the ugly parts of studying English through Irish eyes at Oxford

Read this and weep: Books that made writers cry

John Boyne, Edel Coffey, Ferdia Lennon, Sarah Gilmartin and a dozen other authors and critics on books that had a profound emotional effect on them

A New York Times book critic spent five days in Dublin. Here’s how he got on

The city is a soulful playground for the kind of people who have spectacles on their nose and autumn in their hearts

Running commentary - Frank McNally on the statues of Dublin’s Merrion Square

The southern and western sides lack any statues – moving or otherwise

The Devil’s Spine Band: Arrows of the Golden Moon – Undeniably ambitious but ultimately disjointed

The album, inspired by Oscar Wilde’s trip to Colorado, features luminaries of the Irish independent scene

John Weldon: ‘Don’t buy her a diamond ring without her express input’

Highlights of the busiest week in the auction calendar include a lock of Oscar Wilde’s hair, a Harry Potter first edition, and a rare 007 Omega watch

The Guide: The events to see, the shows to book and the ones to catch before they end

The best music, art, literature and more coming your way between Saturday, October 14th, and Friday, October 20th

Capturing the ancients’ dazzling queer energy in image and story

When we consider the many and ongoing erasures of queer history, the baffling silences of the archives, it is deeply moving to see a world, far off from our own, with queerness flowing through its very fabric

A secret gay history of UK espionage: ‘The skill-set of homosexuals and spies overlapped’

Huw Lemmey, a novelist and host of the Bad Gays podcast, has made the intriguing spy film Ungentle

A life of leisure: is it on the horizon and would we be able to handle it?

We should prioritise rest now, rather than waiting for an automated future that may never arrive

Would Oscar Wilde have survived in the #MeToo era?

Hugh Linehan: Wilde and Roman Polanski both took advantage of positions of power and privilege to sexually exploit young people

Grand: Becoming My Mother’s Daughter – A compelling search for identity

Noelle McCarthy’s debut memoir has plenty of tragic moments but is shot through with dark humour

German chancellor’s Oscar Wilde misquote looks like carelessness

Europe Letter: A citation by Olaf Scholz sounded more like something that would be shared on LinkedIn

Oscar Wilde’s false teeth were kept by a hotelier – but the family didn’t want them back

An Irishwoman’s diary: Oscar Wilde’s false teeth were kept by a hotelier who later tried to return them to the family – but they declined

When a ‘dungeon’ on Leeson Street cost £2 a week and swarmed with literary life

A new book explores Dublin’s literary past, an active part of living or working in the city

‘I admire anyone who keeps going in the face of adversity’

Mullingar crime writer has published a dozen novels and sold in excess of two million copies

The New Life by Tom Crewe: Vivid novel about 19th century homosexuality has a contemporary edge

Story loosely based on reality is both sensual and sensory, capturing 1890s London with the eye of a historian and a Jamesian knack for metaphor

Around Oscar Wilde’s kiss-covered tombstone, Paris’s celebrity cemetery is returning to nature

Père-Lachaise, whose tombs of artistic icons have made the city graveyard a tourist draw, has become a haven for wildlife, too, under a regreening scheme

John Lydon on The Sex Pistols, or ‘those unpleasant f**ks I used to work with’

The punk rock legend feels betrayed by his former bandmates and upcoming Disney+ series, Pistol

‘Would you like to visit my grave?’ The farmer planning a home burial

Martin Neary has permission to be buried on his own lands in Co Mayo when he dies

In a Word . . . Grand

It is not always easy being green when communicating with the neighbours

Gerald Barry: ‘I’ve had an energy in me that has not had an outlet’

The composer on sea bream, symbols, spies, Salome and his new Cello Concerto

Love Storeys – Frank McNally on the eccentric but also romantic hotels of Paris

An Irishman’s Diary

A salt course: Learn how to season with the best of them

Some people don’t even have salt in their house. Are you one of them?

Finding Marcel Proust: Paris marks centenary of the writer’s death

An exhibition at the Musée Carnavalet places Proust in his Belle Époque milieu

The best circles – Paul Clements on the Ulster History Circle’s commemorative plaques

An Irishman’s Diary

Oscar Wilde’s former street named the most expensive in England

Average house price on Tite Street in Chelsea is £28.9m, says mortgage lender Halifax

100 independent Irish online shops for Christmas presents

There’s no excuse for not shopping locally this Christmas as ever more Irish retailers go online

Greek myths, fairy tales and now TikTok: our enduring love affair with horror

Halloween horror taps into cultural roots going back to ancient Greece via the Romantics

Going to college? Head to the open days in universities around the country

When are they on and what’s on offer? Key facts about 2021-2022 open days

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