Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

=== Trinity College Dublin ===
Wilde left Portora with a royal scholarship to read classics at [[Trinity College Dublin]] (TCD), from 1871 to 1874,{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=25}} sharing rooms with his older brother [[Willie Wilde]]. Trinity, one of the leading classical schools, placed him with scholars such as [[Robert Yelverton Tyrrell|R. Y. Tyrell]], [[Arthur Palmer (scholar)|Arthur Palmer]], [[Edward Dowden]] and his tutor, Professor [[John Pentland Mahaffy|J. P. Mahaffy]], who inspired his interest in [[Greek literature]]. As a student, Wilde worked with Mahaffy on the latter's book ''Social Life in Greece''.{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|p=59}} Wilde, despite later reservations, called Mahaffy "my first and best teacher" and "the scholar who showed me how to love Greek things".{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=26}} For his part, Mahaffy boasted of having created Wilde; later, he said Wilde was "the only blot on my tutorship".{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=29}}

The [[University Philosophical Society]] also provided an education, as members discussed intellectual and artistic subjects such as the work of [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] and [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] weekly. Wilde quickly became an established member&nbsp;– the members' suggestion book for 1874 contains two pages of banter sportingly mocking Wilde's emergent aestheticism. He presented a paper titled ''Aesthetic Morality''.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=29}} At Trinity, Wilde established himself as an outstanding student: he came first in his class in his first year, won a [[List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin|scholarship by competitive examination]] in his second and, in his finals, won the Berkeley Gold Medal in Greek, the university's highest academic award.{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|p=154}} He was encouraged to compete for a [[demyship]], a half-scholarship worth £95 per year ({{Inflation|UK|95|1874|r=-2|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}), at [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], which he won easily.<ref>{{cite news |title=Oscar Wilde's money diary: how the Irish playwright lived in debt |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/current-accounts/oscar-wildes-money-diary-irish-playwright-lived-debt/ |access-date=26 August 2020 |archive-date=4 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604064052/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/current-accounts/oscar-wildes-money-diary-irish-playwright-lived-debt/ |url-status=live}}</ref>