I always quite liked the Merrion Square statue. It is kind of ridiculous, but it captures the vanity of the younger man, and a splash of colour too.
The feedback I've heard over the years is that while it's not considered a great sculpture, there's much affection for it, and several nicknames have been invented for it
Dublin statues aren't just odes to important historical figures, but a chance for Irish humour. Check out these Dublin statue nicknames.
notesofnomads.com
Not sure I agree, but I don't think Wilde would have wanted a statue (if he would have wanted one at all) that didn't have detractors.
Even with his epigrams, he often playfully undermined them in the next sentence. What helped him hone this skill of wit was translating a Chinese wise-man's book early in his career:
"In 1890 Oscar Wilde wrote a review of the first complete translation into English of the fourth-century BCE Daoist sage, Zhuangzi (Chuang Tsŭ as then transliterated). From numerous echoes in his subsequent work, we may surmise that in Zhuangzi Wilde discovered a fellow spirit, one who would, in the event, crystallize Wilde’s most distinctive ideas, among them the fundamental uselessness of everything useful and that creed of dandyism that articulates Zhuangzi’s concept of
wu wei (“the principle of inaction”). Finally, Zhuangzi’s advocacy for the non-government of mankind resonates throughout Wilde’s one political essay, “The Soul of Man under Socialism.”
Discovering Zhuangzi thus became a crucial agent in transforming Wilde’s inherently Irish style of thinking into that of the most startling British intellectual of his day."
In 1890 Oscar Wilde wrote a review of the first complete translation into English of the fourth-century BCE Daoist sage, Zhuangzi (Chuang Tsŭ as then transliterated). From numerous echoes in his subsequent work, we may surmise that in Zhuangzi Wilde discovered a...
link.springer.com
Merrion Square is a well-maintained park in a nice area of Dublin city. There's a closed underground nuclear bunker from WWII at one end, and towards the other, The Joker's Chair, after Father Ted.
Take a seat and remember Ireland’s favourite fictional priest.
www.thejournal.ie