[5] The legs are of Norwegian Blue Pearl granite with the shoes being black Indian charnockite and finished with bronze shoelace tips.

[6] The inscriptions of the quotes copy the personal handwriting of figures including Seamus Heaney, John B. Keane and Michael D.

"[8] Art historian Paula Murphy agreed, saying, "It has taken nearly one hundred years for an Irish body, public or private, to risk suggesting that we might consider Oscar Wilde worthy of such commemoration.

Because of its positioning at the corner of the park on the turn of the outer pathway, the visitor to the monument sees one side of Wilde when approaching and another when walking away.

One is the witty Wilde who is most often remembered in popular culture, the other the "broken man" he became following his two-year incarceration for committing homosexual acts.

[2] Smith argues "we cannot help but read this work according to today's conventions of dress and gesture", saying: The choice of pose for Wilde, which invokes familiar art historical and popular images of 'feminized masculinity', the use of colour for this 'colourful character' and his gaze directed at the nude male torso all coalesce with our knowledge of his homosexuality.