OSCAR WILDE, ANGLO-IRISH NETWORKS OF PRINT AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF NEEDLEWORK

This article focuses on the journalism of Oscar Wilde, and in particular a single review of a history of needlework, to explore the connections between British and Irish print media in the 1880s. By understanding the significance of the review, we can begin to see the overlapping networks of print in Ireland and Britain in the late-19th century. We also learn something about Wilde's approach to writing about Ireland. While he may not have written directly about Ireland across his oeuvre, he does in this review demonstrate his interests in Irish cultural politics which were being discussed in Anglo-Irish print media at the time. It is through connections in print-the way Wilde's review is part of broader, topical discourses about contemporary Ireland-that we come to understand Wilde's subtle intervention in some of the most significant cultural and political questions of his day.