~ Revised ~ - Test Your Irish Skills

1. Which of the following writers has NOT won the Nobel Prize for Literature?
1	Samuel Beckett
2	James Joyce
3	Seamus Heaney
4	William Butler Yeats

2. Who has been described as the "Irish Joan of Arc?"
1	Sinead O'Connor
2	Elizabeth Bowen
3	Maud Gonne
4	Lady Gregory

3. Which of the following quotes was NOT from Brendan Behan?
1	"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."
2	"I am a drinker with writing problems."
3	"When I came back to Dublin I was courtmartialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."
4	"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves."

4. Which President of Ireland was born in New York City?
1	Eamon DeValera
2	Douglas Hyde
3	Mary Robinson
4	Sean T. O'Kelly

5. Which play was NOT the cause of a riot in Dublin?
1	Voltaire's Mahomet
2	Synge's Playboy of the Western World
3	O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars
4	Wilde's Salome

6. What is Ireland's most common surname?
1	O'Connor
2	McManus
3	Murphy
4	Kelly

7. Why wasn't Ulysses banned in Ireland?
1	The Irish government hoped to convince Joyce to return from exile.
2	The censors didn't read far enough into the book to get to the explicit parts.
3	The book wasn't published in Ireland until 1981.
4	No one complained to censors about the book.

8. Which fact is true of the Irish?
1	They buy more books of poetry per capita than any other English-speaking people.
2	They grow more potatoes per capita than any other country in the world.
3	They have the largest population of sheep in the world.
4	They own the fewest dogs per capita than any other country in Europe.

9. Which of the following is NOT a correct translation of a name into Gaelic?
1	James = Seamus
2	Jane = Sinead
3	Julia = Sadhbh
4	Francis = Proinsias

10. Which of these countries is smaller than the Republic of Ireland?
1	Panama
2	Austria
3	Cuba
4	Denmark

11. Which scandal actually happened in Ireland?
1	A fugitive wanted for two murders was discovered to be staying at the home of the country's attorney general.
2	The Bishop of Galway resigned when it was discovered he had a teenaged son whom he supported with church funds.
3	A tribunal concluded that a former Prime Minister of Ireland had "misappropriated" funds raised for a colleague's liver transplant, sold passports to an Arab sheikh, and accumulated a fortune in clandestine payments from wealthy businessmen.
4	All of them.

12. On which days must Irish pubs close by law?
1	Good Friday through Easter Sunday
2	Good Friday and Christmas Day
3	New Year's Day and Easter Sunday
4	Election Day and Christmas

13. Which Irish actor has said, "I couldn't care less who sees my bits?"
1	Colin Farrell
2	Liam Neeson
3	Peter O'Toole
4	Barry Fitzgerald

14. Which famous horror author was born in Dublin?
1	Mary Shelley
2	Robert Louis Stevenson
3	Bram Stoker
4	Stephen King