Oscar Wilde statue Merrion Square, Dublin 2
Picture of the Oscar Wilde statue which can be found across from the Wilde family home in Merrion Square, Dublin. Dubliners jokingly refer to it as “The Queer with the Leer”, “The Fag on the Crag” or “The Quare in the Square”. These nicknames are not meant to be offensive as Dubliners have a long habit of labelling statues which are sometimes not flattering but if it rhymes and it is someway funny the nickname will invariably stick with Dubliners. ( I blame James Joyce for this! )
The statue was commissioned by Guinness Ireland and the sculptor was Danny Osborne, it was unveiled by Merlin Holland in 1997. The sculptor used stones in complementary colours and of varying textures to give us a much more lifelike representation of Oscar Wilde than your conventional statue. A lot of stones had to be specially imported from places such as Siberia , Norway, Guatemala in the video the sculptor discusses the process
The sculptors assistant Deborah Wilson has some interesting pictures on her website, click on monuments and scroll down.
The statue of Wilde shows Oscar reclining almost provocatively on a rock, it is positioned so that he is looking at his family home on the north side of Merrion Square. The Oscar Wilde statue is composed of highly polished coloured stones, Wilde’s jacket is green stone which is complemented by red stone cuffs. The sculpture includes two stone pillars which are covered in quotations from Oscar Wilde. One of the sculptures is a bronze figure of a pregnant naked woman kneeling,while the other has a bronze male torso. Perhaps these are meant to symbolise Wilde’s ambiguous sexuality and aesthetic sensibilities?.
The statue works on many levels,the highly polished surface combined with Oscars provocative posture, makes us notice him right away. The statue captures the essential Oscar, almost magnetically it draws your attention and causes discussion exactly like Wilde did himself more than 100 years ago now, Oscar would be so pleased!
If your visiting Dublin to see the Oscar Wilde statue please bear in mind that the park closing times vary from between 9:30pm in midsummer and 4:30pm in midwinter.