The questions are the answers you might need
Coming in a mess going out in style
I ain't good-looking but I'm someone's child
No-one can give me the air that's mine to breathe
--Oasis
There's only one problem with Britain's most witty personality ever: He's not British. Wilde was Irish, and that is a scientific fact:
Oscar Wilde was the second son born into an Anglo-Irish family, at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, to Sir William Wilde and his wife Jane Francesca Elgee (her pseudonym being Speranza). Jane was a successful writer, being a poet for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848 and a life-long Irish nationalist.
That's ok, Britain has long claimed Irish sons as its own so I guess the Irish can take it as a compliment really. Johnny Rotten and the above quoted Gallagher brothers are technically born in England, but are first generation Irish immigrants. Liam Gallagher was voted as another of the most witty Brits of all time. Here he is belting out one of my faves:
1 comment:
A scientific fact, is it?
"Johnny Rotten and the above quoted Gallagher brothers are technically born in England, but are first generation Irish immigrants."
Based on that logic, it would seem reasonable by many to refer to Wilde as "British" then. It is highly likely his paternal ancestors were from the north of England.
The Wilde Surname.
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