People forget that Wilde, one of the great flamboyant characters of all time, had a wife and fathered two children before his tragic fall.
Two of Ireland’s most well-known writers, Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan, have more than their occupation and city of birth in common-both were bisexual. (Ironically, both Casement and Wilde would be pursued and prosecuted, Inspector Javert-style, by Sir Edward Carson, the less than patriotic Orange bigot.) Oscar Wilde was hounded to his grave because he flaunted Victorian law and convention.
And you don’t have to look too hard either for great examples-two of the sixteen men executed by the British in 1916 were most likely gay- Sir Roger Casement (definitely) and Padraig Pearse (probably). It’s ironic that this bigotry towards gays should have remained so prevalent in current times, since Ireland’s history has been enriched, yesterday and today, by its gay members.
