![\"\"](\"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wilde-1024x785.png\")
The sculpture was a gift from the City of Tartu in Estonia and presented to Galway on 24 April 2004. It was officially unveiled by Councillor Terry O\u2019Flaherty, Mayor of Galway. Also present were a host of Estonian dignitaries, including his Excellency Simmu Tiik (Ambassador to Ireland); journalists, businessmen, Government Ministers, members of the European Parliament and many more turned out for the special occasion. It is a replica of a sculpture located outside the Wilde Irish Pub in Tartu, Estonia. These men were contemporary writers, and the statues represent a possible meeting between them in 1892. The people of Estonia were very enthusiastic to have a replica made of the sculpture and presented to the people of Ireland. The plan was to have the sculptures unveiled prior to the \u2018Day of Welcomes\u2019 which took place on 1 May that year. The Day of Welcomes was a special date as it was part of the Cultural Programme for the Irish European Union Presidency in 2004. A miniature bronze cast of the sculpture was presented to President Mary McAleese during her visit to the country that year \u2013 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eduard Vilde\u00a0was born on 4 March 1865. He was a writer and pioneer of critical realism in Estonian literature, and a diplomat. Vilde was the author of classics such as\u00a0The War in Mahtra<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Milkman from M\u00e4ek\u00fcla<\/em>. He was one of the most revered figures in Estonian literature during his lifetime. He is also generally credited as being the first professional writer in Estonia. Vilde died on 6 December 1933.\u00a0 Oscar Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin. Wilde married a wealthy Englishwoman named Constance Lloyd on 29 May 1884. They had two sons: Cyril and Vyvyan. He was a hugely successful writer with such works as The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em> and The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em>. It was while enjoying his literary success, that Wilde commenced a gay relationship with a young man named Lord Alfred Douglas. The young man\u2019s father, the Marquis of Queensberry, was shocked by the affair and Wilde ended up facing court proceedings on a charge of \u2018Gross Indecency\u2019. On 25 May 1895, Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. Oscar Wilde died in Paris of meningitis on 30 November 1900.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The popular statue of writers Oscar Wilde (Irish) and Eduard Vilde (Estonian) is a permanent fixture in William Street. Both sculptures are seated, leaving a space between them for any weary person to sit down. It has proven a great asset for locals and visitors alike to sit there and have their photograph taken. The … Continue reading “A Gift from Estonia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[190,191,189,193,192],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galway-musings","tag-eduard-vilde","tag-estonia","tag-oscar-wilde","tag-sculptures","tag-william-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}