Oscar Wilde

In 1954 a plaque was placed on the wall of 21 Westland Row to commemorate the birth of Oscar Wilde. It was designed by Mícheál Mac Liammóir and unveiled by Lennox Robinson. The Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing hosted the immensely successful Wilde Legacy Symposium in December 2000.

William Wilde

Dr. William Wilde, Oscar's father, was one of the leading ENT specialists of his time. He is in fact acknowledged internationally as one of the founders of the speciality and he wrote the first clinical textbook on the subject. He was a pioneer medical statistician and he was knighted for this work. He also had an international reputation as an antiquarian and archaeologist and he was recognised as an expert on Irish pre-history. He was one of the leading figures in the Celtic Revival. William Wilde was also a biographer and medical historian and he wrote a book on Jonathan Swift. He wrote a fascinating book on a journey to the Middle East in l837 during which he climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid at great personal risk.

Speranza

Jane Wilde, Oscar's mother, who wrote under the pseudonym Speranza, was also a remarkable person. She was brought up as a Unionist but she became closely associated with the Young Irelanders, Thomas Davis, William Smith O'Brien and Charles Gavan Duffy and she wrote revolutionary poetry for 'The Nation' newspaper. She subsequently became a leading society hostess in Dublin. She was an early champion of women's rights. She was fluent in a number of languages and she translated several poems and books. The Wildes' house at 21 Westland Row attracted some of the leading figures in art, literature, science and medicine - including John Hogan, Samuel Ferguson and William Rowan Hamilton.