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Exploring Ireland: A Quiz on History, Culture, and Geography

This quiz tests your knowledge of Ireland's rich history, culture, and geography through a variety of questions focused on key events, figures, and geographical details.

#Ireland #History #Culture #Geography #Quiz #Education

1 What does the following picture show?  Tyrone v Kerry at the All-Ireland Football Final in 2005   The Uragh Stone Circle a Neolithic stone circle in Gleninchaquin Park, County Kerry.   Ringsend power station in Dublin   Paul O'Connell reaching for the ball during a line out against Argentina in 2007.

2 [143] He successfully defended his title in July 2008[144] before going on to win the ________ in August.

3 In 1921, following an incident in which, despite an earlier promise, the IFA moved an ________ semi-final replay from Dublin to Belfast[136]

4 The Hiberno-Scottish missions, begun by the Irish monk Saint ________, spread the Irish concept of Christianity to pagan England and the Frankish Empire.

5 Where is Ireland?

6 One, ________, receiving the Victoria Cross for valour.

7 Ireland also hosted games during the 1991 and the ________ (including a quarter-final).

8 Similar to electricity, the natural gas distribution network is also now all-island, with a pipeline linking Gormanston, County Meath, and ________, County Antrim.

9 What does the following picture show?  Gubbeen cheese, an example of the resurgence in Irish cheese making   Emigrants Leave Ireland engraving by Henry Doyle depicting the emigration to America following the Great Famine in Ireland.   Horse racing in Sligo.   Gubbeen cheese, an example of the resurgence in Irish cheese making

10 [127] Notable mathematicians include Sir ________, famous for the invention of quaternions.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • in the anonymous Breton lai Melion, one of King Arthur's knights was transformed into a werewolf by his wife using a magic ring before she ran off with another man to Ireland.
  • in Irish politics, no ordinary referendum has ever occurred.
  • in 1910 the Kalem Company became the first American film studio to ever make a motion picture outside the United States when a film crew went on location in Ireland.
  • people from County Carlow in Ireland are nicknamed "scallion-eaters" because, in the early 19th century, Carlow town supplied most of the onions in Leinster.
  • publishers at first considered Nora Roberts' debut novel Irish Thoroughbred to be too ethnic because the heroine was from Ireland.
  • the Great Western Railway operated ships in connection with their trains to provide services to Ireland, the Channel Islands and France.
  • rival Vikings in Ireland were called Dubgaill and Finngaill, which could be translated as black and white foreigners.
  • in 1853, the Irish clergyman William Reeves bought the 9th-century Book of Armagh (pictured) for three hundred pounds.
  • in 1697 French Huguenot refugee Élie Bouhéreau brought church records from La Rochelle to Ireland to save them from destruction, and they remained there for nearly 200 years.
  • a dendrochronological study suggests the Corlea Trackway, a kilometre-long corduroy road in County Longford, Ireland, was built around 148 BC.
  • Wye Valley Brewery’s Dorothy Goodbody line of beers were all originally supposed to feature Herefordshire-grown hops, but the best-known beer in that line contains hops grown in Ireland.
  • The Irish Filmography is a reference source for nearly 2,000 films made from 1896 to 1996 in Ireland, about either Ireland or the Irish.
  • according to legend, the masons who built Corcomroe Abbey (pictured) in Ireland were killed to stop them from building another masterpiece elsewhere.
  • as cricket in Ireland is organised on an All-Ireland basis, a team representing Northern Ireland has appeared just once, at the 1998 Commonwealth Games cricket tournament.
  • from 1850 until 1872, the Party Processions Act made it illegal to parade in Ireland with music, flags or banners.
  • carved Romanesque stone heads (pictured) were added to the walls of Temple Cronan in Ireland as decoration during renovation in the 12th century.
  • the Irish Thoroughbred Noor was the first racehorse ever to defeat two U.S. Triple Crown champions.
  • the Irish politician the O'Gorman Mahon commanded a Chilean fleet, fought thirteen duels, and won a by-election aged 87.
  • the earliest record of Gaelic handball is the 1527 town statutes of Galway, Ireland, which forbade the playing of ball games against the walls.
  • the all-time best-selling album of traditional Irish music in Ireland is Sharon Shannon's self-titled debut.
  • the German submarine U-558 sank ships as far north as Ireland and as far south as Trinidad during World War II.
  • the highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland, where the climate is temperate oceanic, was 33.3ºC (91.9ºF) at Kilkenny Castle on 26 June 1887.
  • the monks of the Ross Errilly Friary (pictured) in Ireland were evicted six times in the span of 118 years, but kept moving back in.
  • the three high crosses at Monasterboice—including Muiredach's High Cross (pictured)—have been described as possibly Ireland's greatest contribution to European sculpture.
  • the paintings of the Giant's Causeway by Irish artist Susanna Drury were so detailed that the authors of the French Encyclopédie used an engraving of one as a reference, and included it in a supplementary volume.
  • the Western Railway Corridor, built in the late 1800s, links Limerick to Sligo through the West of Ireland.
  • the Permanent North American Gaeltacht (pictured) is an officially designated Irish speaking area in English/French speaking Ontario, Canada, the first of its kind outside of Ireland.
  • the Commission on Social Welfare, from 1983 to 1986, reviewed social welfare in Ireland.
  • the Claregalway Friary (pictured), one of the first Franciscan monasteries in Ireland, housed only two friars when it was finally forced to close in 1847.
  • the 1966 New York City transit strike at the start of the mayoralty of John V. Lindsay was led by the defiant Irish-born TWU founder Mike Quill, who was briefly jailed for leading the illegal strike, and died before the month was out.
  • the Common Travel Area which allows Irish and British people to travel without passports between their countries is the result of the lack of any law requiring a passport.
  • the Cork Opera House in Ireland was built in 1855, burned down in 1955, and rebuilt in 1963.
  • the O'Kane Building in Bend, Oregon, was built for Hugh O’Kane who, as a boy, came to the United States illegally from Ireland by stowing away on a New York bound ship.
  • the Mount Sandel Mesolithic site in Coleraine, County Londonderry is the oldest archaeological site in Ireland.
  • St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam in County Galway, Ireland, contains a 12th-century arch which has been called "the finest example of Hiberno-Romanesque architecture".
  • St. Patrick's Blue, rather than green, was long the colour most associated with the patron saint of Ireland, and is present on Ireland's Presidential Standard (pictured).
  • Irish international sporting brothers Louis Magee and James Magee both had the middle name Mary.
  • Irish computer programmer Gavin Walsh owns the world's largest collection of Sex Pistols records and memorabilia.
  • Irish band Fight Like Apes named one of their 2007 EPs David Carradine is a Bounty Hunter Whos Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch.
  • Irish poet John Keegan Casey was released from prison on the condition he leave for Australia, but instead he stayed in Dublin in disguise.
  • Irish-born Major League Baseball player Jimmy Archer (pictured) received a medal from the National Safety Council in 1931 for reviving two men overcome by carbon monoxide in the Chicago stockyards.
  • Aine Lawlor presents Morning Ireland, Ireland's most listened to radio programme.
  • Áed Ua Crimthainn, abbot of Terryglass, Ireland, was the compiler and principal scribe of the Book of Leinster, a Middle Irish illuminated manuscript (pictured).
  • Irish writer and trade unionist Brian Behan once took part in a swearing match at the British Museum.
  • Irish stage actor Enda Oates' theatrical career includes roles such as Macduff in the play Macbeth and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
  • Irish actor Paudge Behan is the son of IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding and Beatrice Behan, the widow of playwright Brendan Behan.
  • harps (pictured) are national musical instruments in Ireland, Wales and Paraguay.
  • Australian deputy judge advocate Richard Dore once ordered several hundred lashes be given to suspected Irish insurrectionists before a verdict had been made.
  • Irish chemist Robert Kane (1809–1890) showed that hydrogen is electropositive.
  • Irish cricketer Scott Huey was the last bowler to dismiss Sir Len Hutton in first-class cricket.
  • Irish journalist Doireann Ní Bhriain was given one of the final Jacob's Awards in 1993 to commemorate her career with RTÉ Radio 1.
  • Irish indie rock band Ham Sandwich were encouraged by U2 frontman Bono to change their name in 2006.
  • Cornelia Adair, during World War I, invited Belgian refugees to stay at her Glenveagh Castle in County Donegal, Ireland.
  • Fastnet Rock, a small clay-slate island with quartz veins, is the southernmost point of Ireland.
  • one-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of the United States, Canada and Australia until the early 20th century, and that they continue in some parts of Ireland today.
  • Neil Doak was named in the Ireland squad for the 2003 Rugby World Cup but did not play, just missing out on becoming the first Irish dual cricket/rugby union international since the 1960s.
  • Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid, a 9th-century "king of all Ireland", came to power after killing his brother.
  • Rachael English, presenter of the Irish radio news programme Five Seven Live, was joined on the show by her father, who provided Cheltenham horse racing tips for her listeners.
  • Shakespeare and Company, an English-language bookstore in left bank Paris, first published James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922, but the book was subsequently banned in the United States, United Kingdom and the author's home country Ireland.
  • Sir Robert Kingsmill (pictured) was commander of the Royal Navy's Irish station during two French attempts to invade Ireland, in 1796 and in 1798.
  • Sheenboro, Quebec, started as a trading post on the Ottawa River and has retained its character as a "Little Corner of Ireland".
  • Kevin Rockett is considered one of the pre-eminent authorities on the history of Irish cinema.
  • Kari Blackburn, daughter of Irish educationist Robert Blackburn, taught in a primary school in Tanzania before joining the BBC.
  • George Halpin's Bull Wall and Bull Island, engineering works at the mouth of the River Liffey, enabled deep-draught ships to use the port of Dublin, Ireland for the first time.
  • Frank Winder, one of the leading Irish rock-climbers of the 1950s and 60s, started climbing to search for rare plants and insects.
  • Flaithbertach Ua Néill, king of Ailech in Ireland, was called Flaithbertach an Trostáin, Flaithbertach of the Pilgrim's staff, as a result of his pilgrimage to Rome in 1030.
  • James Annesley, an Irishman, was kidnapped by his uncle and shipped to America to work as a slave in the plantations, before returning in 1741 to try to claim the title "Earl of Anglesey".
  • James Carlile introduced an educational system in 1830s Ireland whereby children of different denominations could attend the same school.
  • Joseph Cornelius O’Rourke, an Irish Count born in Estonia, became a Russian Lieutenant General, and was honoured with a statue in Belgrade for his victory over the Ottoman Empire in 1810.
  • Jonas of Bobbio based his Life of St. Columbanus on the recollections of Benedictine monks who had known the Irish saint personally.
  • 11-year old Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein is regarded by Jacobites as third in line for the throne of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland.
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