Oscar Wilde House

Oscar Wilde House

I left St Stephen’s Green where among other things I had been watching squirrels and talking to a man named Daniel who was feeding pigeons. From there, I walked for some time, in no-particular direction taking in the streets of Dublin. Every so often, I would come to an intersection where I would decide on the direction I took by way of how interesting the street seemed. If nothing seemed appealing, I would simply head off along a path. This amused me for some time, until I came to an intersection where Merrion Street West, Merrion Street Lower, Merrion Street North and Clare Street all converged. Crossing the road I spied a helpful disc stuck to the side of a building by the Dublin Tourism office. Like most places around the world, they put these up on buildings to help people like me know that this building is worth taking note of.

In this case the plaque read ‘Oscar Wilde 1854 – 1900’, Poet, Dramist, Wit, Lived Here 1855 – 1878.’ Taking a second to process this information, it suddenly dawned on me that I had inadvertently and quite by chance come across Merrion Square and the home of the one and only Oscar Wilde. While disappointed the building was closed, I was nevertheless pleased with my find. I took a minute to take in my surroundings as people pushed past me on the wintry afternoon, clearly annoyed at the valuable space I was taking up for no apparent reason. Making up my mind that I needed to digest this find a wee bit further, I immediately headed for the nearest pub, where I ordered a pint of Guinness and settled in to read about the life and times of the famous Oscar Wilde.