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He Was Born Inside What Is Now Trinity College:  He was the son of Sir William Wilde and author Jane Wilde and the second of three children. Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, which presently belongs to Trinity College Dublin.  Oscar Wilde’s birthplace is now the Oscar Wilde Centre of Trinity College.

He Only Wrote One Novel: Oscar Wilde only published one novel throughout his life. The picture of Dorian Grey, was met with critical reviews due to its decadence and homoerotic content.

He Was Imprisoned For His Sexuality: Oscar Wilde was tried for sodomy by the father of his lover Sir Alfred Douglas at the age of forty-five. After attempting to sue John Douglas for libel, Wilde was convicted of sodomy on the 25th of May 1895. Wilde was sent to Pentonville Prison and forced to do hard labour. Here, Wilde contracted meningitis, which ultimately led to his demise.

He Was Catholic When He Died:
Catholic Church throughout his life due to his anti-Catholic father. However, he felt that the Catholic Church accepted both sinners and saints, and thus believed that ‘Catholic was the only religion to die in.’

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“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
―  Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was an infamously brilliant playwright, author, and social activist.
Fun facts:

Oscar Wilde was an exceptional linguist and spoke many languages: He was fluent in English, German, French and had a working knowledge of Italian and Greek. Conversely, he could not speak a single word of Irish.

Wilde also wrote children’s stories:   His short story collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales was published in May of 1888. This collection included popular tales such as The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, and the Selfish Giant.

Love life: Wilde  married Constance Lloyd on May 29, 1884.  The couple had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. Despite Wilde’s preference for men and the social scandal caused by his trial and imprisonment, Wilde and his wife never divorced.  However Constance did change her and her sons’ last name to Holland.

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken": That quote is often attributed to Oscar Wilde. However, there is no substantive evidence that he ever said this.

Wilde was pardoned for his convictions in 2017, when the UK government’s ‘Turing Law’ exonerated more than 50,000 men who had been convicted of crimes for homosexuality that no longer exist.

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He was a proud Irishman: Wilde’s Anglo-Irish background is often forgotten – perhaps because of his quintessentially ‘British’ writings – though he himself was proud of his Irish heritage.
He believed in ‘art for art’s sake’:
Wilde was known for his support of aestheticism – an intellectual movement which centred on the idea that art should not exist for any other motive other than beauty.

He was in love with Bram Stoker’s wife:
During his youth in Dublin, Wilde had been infatuated with the beautiful and witty Florence Balcombe. To Wilde’s disappointment and despite their courtship, Balcombe instead chose to marry fellow Irish author Bram Stoker, who would later gain fame as the creator of Dracula.

Wilde wrote one of his most famous works from his cell in Reading gaol:
Though Wilde was forbidden from writing plays, prose or poetry while serving his sentence, he was permitted to write letters. He realised that the prison regulations did not specify how long a letter should be and, if a letter were not finished, then the prisoner may be allowed take it with him when he left the prison.