This book is the first study of the formation of the idea of homosexuality in Ireland into the twentieth century and centers on an account of Wilde's visible presence as sexual other. Using contemporary Irish newspaper reports of his trials of 1895, previously unpublished archival material, and a significant body of Irish critical studies, biographies and dramatizations of Wilde's life and sexuality, Walshe argues that Wilde in Irish culture was perceived not so much as Oscar Wilde the unspeakable but much more as Oscar Wilde the dissident Irishman. Wilde, famous for his writings and notorious for his sexuality, is central for perceptions of homosexuality in modern Ireland.