His father died in 1876, and in early 1879 Willie and Lady Wilde moved to London, where he became a journalist, serving as a drama critic for Punch and Vanity Fair, as a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph, and as editor of Christmas numbers of several magazines. "Brother Willie- "Never mind, Oscar other great men have had their dramatic failures!" 1883 cartoon by Alfred Bryan after the failure of Oscar Wilde's play Vera or, The Nihilists in AmericaĪfter graduating from Trinity College Willie Wilde studied law and was called to the Irish Bar, but he never actually practised law. In 1876 'Willie' published several of his poems in the College magazine Kottabos, which he also edited. Willie was already a student at Trinity College, Dublin when Oscar joined him in 1871, the two sharing rooms during their second and third years there. Willie was "an accomplished pianist and an artist of little talent' Oscar Wilde later recalled that the headmaster, Dr Steele, had told him that “If I went on studying as I had been during the last year I might yet do as well as my brother Willie, and be an honour to the school and everyone connected with it.” Oscar became known to his school fellows by the nickname 'Grey Crow', which he disliked, while Willie was 'Blue Blood'. In February 1864, Willie and Oscar were sent to board at the Portora Royal School at Enniskillen in Ulster, where Willie became known for his good-humour and friendliness, later being described by a classmate as "clever, erratic and full of vitality". Here, Lady Wilde held a regular Saturday afternoon salon with guests including Sheridan le Fanu, Samuel Lever, George Petrie, Isaac Butt and Samuel Ferguson. In June 1855, the family moved to 1 Merrion Square in a fashionable residential area, where Wilde's sister, Isola, was born in 1856. He was a renowned philanthropist, and his dispensary for the care of the city's poor, in Lincoln Place at the rear of Trinity College, Dublin, was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. William also wrote books on archaeology and folklore. Sir William was Ireland's leading Oto- Ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services to medicine. Jane Wilde was a successful writer, being a poet for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848 and a lifelong Irish nationalist. Their second son, Oscar, was born in the same house in 1854. Willie was the oldest son born into an Anglo-Irish family, at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, to Sir William Wilde and his wife Jane Francesca Wilde (née Elgee) (her pseudonym being 'Speranza').
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