That’s Ireland

How many of the Dublin homes of James Joyce do you know? Here’s the full list, and how long he spent in each of them: >>> (more…)

• What was unusual about John Pius Boland’s gold medal in tennis in Athens in 1896, apart from him becoming the first Irishman to win Olympic gold?
• What excuse did Irish footballer Ernie Crawford give when customs officials found a gun in his luggage on the way to Paris in 1924?
• What was unusual about Bob Tisdall, who was born in Ceylon and raised in Tipperary, winning gold for Ireland in the 400 metres hurdles in Los Angeles in 1932?

Answers just a click away: >>> (more…)

The 2008 Hot Press Annual has a selection of its quotes of 2007 in music, film, politics, sport and more. See if you can guess who said the following:

• I am, unsurprisingly, a straight person. I am pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism. That doesn’t mean that (pause) … I mean, I hate what they do.
• You often hear of unlikely fans. Maurice Gibb, the unfortunate Bee Gee who died, was a big fan. Someone told me he was buried with a copy of it.
• I’m driven in politics by belief that this is what God wants me to do. I read the Bible every day. I am strengthened and invigorated by having a prayerful reflection quite often on the train when I am coming in.
• I’ve actually been more influenced by people like Tommy Tiernan, Des Bishop and David O’Doherty than I would have been by Woody Allen.
• One thing that I’ve found is that, wherever you go, everybody loves the Irish. They love us! (this one is quite a surprise)

And the answers are: >>> (more…)

Do you know…

• The words that Father Jack blurted out most often in Father Ted?
  (and how often he used each of the words?)
• The episodes in which Father Jack shouted ‘Drink!’ most often?

Answers just a click away: >>> (more…)

Do you know the first five albums by Irish artists to reach Number One in the UK charts? As clues, here are the initial letters:

• 1967 - V.D.R.B.G. by V.D.
• 1973 - B.T.F. by G.O.S.
• 1983 - W. by U.T.
• 1984 - T.U.F. by U.T.
• 1987 - T.J.T. by U.T.

Answers just a click away: >>> (more…)

Can you recognise who this are? It’s a half-way image of a morph between two very serious Irish statesmen having a bit of an old laugh. I really like this one.

Here’s the answer, and an animated version of the morph. >>> (more…)

Can you recognise who this are? It’s a half-way image of a morph between an Irish entertainer and a Scottish sportsman (who kind of look like each other anyway).

Here’s the answer, and an animated version of the morph. >>> (more…)

As a hint, you will land more often on squares that you can be sent to, such as Jail and Go, and on squares soon after them. Here is the full list: >>> (more…)

Here are ten more great Irish bans and condemnations of the 20th century. As before, do you know in what year each of them took place?

• Cork students banned from dancing ragtime or one-step
• Limerick mob seize and burn reels of ‘Juno and the Paycock’
• Thurles schoolboys march against blue-shirted classmates
• GAA drops Douglas Hyde as Patron for attending soccer
• Aer Lingus bans air hostesses after seven years service
• Bishop of Clonfert condemns woman with no nightie
• Catholic Bishops lift ban on their flock attending TCD
• Courts ban Boomtown Rats concert at Leopardstown
• Ban on divorce is lifted after second referendum is passed
• Swiss Sports Council upholds ban on Michelle de Bruin

Answers just a click away >>> (more…)

Here are ten great Irish bans and condemnations of the 20th century. But do you know in what year each of them took place?

• Rev Magee of Cavan condemns imorral postcards
• Bishops condemn ‘abnormal craze’ of night-dancing
• National Athletic and Cycling Association bans women
• Gaelic League asks Dublin Council to to oppose jazz music
• Russia vetoes Ireland joining the United Nations
• NI Education Department bans schoolbooks with pictures of tricolour
• Bishop Moynihan stops Jane Mansfield show in Tralee
• RTE spikes ‘The Spike’ after nude model appears in art class
• Courts ban 14-year-old rape victim from leaving the country
• GAA votes to keep ban on RUC members

Answers just a click away >>> (more…)

A lot of Irish placenames are Anglicised versions of Gaelic names. Do you know what placenames came from the Gaelic words for:

• Town of Excrement, County Wexford
• Town of the Dungstand, County Down
• Hillside of the Breast, County Fermanagh
• The Buttock, Counties Donegal, Galway and Mayo
• The Fat Buttock, County Kerry
• Backside to the Wind, Counties Armagh and Mayo
• Buttock Island, County Kerry
• The Two Breasts, County Kerry
• Bottom, County Monaghan
• Black Bottom, County Donegal

Placenames like breast and buttock typically refer to the shape of hills. Answers just a click away: >>> (more…)

If you discover a minor planet, you get to suggest a name for it. Most are named after scientists, explorers or composers, but some have been named after popular entertainers including the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Procul Harum, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Yes and Eric Clapton. But who is the only Irish musician to have a planet named after them? >>> (more…)

Here are the meanings of fourteen Irish County names, from the whole island, that are named after people or tribes. How many of them do you know? It includes two of the new Counties that the Irish Government created in 2001, Counties Fingal and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown.

• Cainneach’s Church
• Ciar’s People
• Coman’s Height
• Eoghan’s Territory
• Failghe’s People
• Foreigner’s Fort
• Galvia’s River
• Laoghaire’s Fort
• The Laoigis (iron-age picts)
• Macha’s Height
• Manach’s Men
• O’Farrell’s Fort
• Viking Meadow
• White Foreigner

Answers just a click away: >>> (more…)

Here are the meanings of twenty Irish County names, from the whole island, that are named mostly after geographical features. How many of them do you know? I have included the original names for Counties Dublin and Tipperary, although in 2001 the Irish Government divided the old County Dublin into three new Counties, and divided the old County Tipperary into two new Counties.

• Abounding in Shells
• Black Pool
• Fjord of the Flats
• The Fort
• Grey Hill-Ridge
• The Hollow
• The Marsh
• The Middle
• The Oak Grove
• Oak Tree Church
• Place of Shrubs
• The Plain
• Plain of Ewe Trees
• Quadruple Lake
• The River Lud
• River of Cloaks
• Solitary Farm
• Weather Haven
• The Well of Ara
• West Central

Answers just a click away: >>> (more…)

Do you know the first ten singles by Irish artists to reach Number One in the UK charts? As clues, here are the initial letters:

• 1955 - S.S. by R.M.
• 1964 - D. by T.B.
• 1970 - A.K.O.E. by D.
• 1972 - C. by G.O’S.
• 1973 - G.D. by G.O’S.
• 1978 - R.T. by T.B.R.
• 1979 - I.D.L.M. by T.B.R.
• 1980 - W.A.Y. by J.L.
• 1985 - A.G.H. by F.S.
• 1986 - L.I.R. by C.D.B.

Answers just a click away: >>> (more…)

For reasons too silly to elaborate on, I was looking up early Irish references to the word eejit, and I came across a piece in the Irish Farmers Journal from 1966 which listed some colloquialisms of the day. Do you know what these mean?

• Monaghan - Gesha, Gosoon, Hait, Hallion, Mizzling
• Waterford - All the Care, Bit of a Consequence, Dallacker, Tipper, Who-but-Me
  
• Other Counties - Cleesawn, Eegit, Jildy, On the bed, Sharoose

Answers just a click away. >>> (more…)

I’ve just been to see the latest Harry Potter movie, and I spent most of the film trying to think who Kreacher reminded me of.

Then it dawned on me! Have a guess before you look… >>> (more…)

Here are the last six questions about Father Ted that helped Patrick Gibson win Mastermind in 2005.

• In the episode Hell, Mrs Doyle said she had put cocaine in the cake but then realised she meant what?
• In the final episode of Series One how does an exasperated Ted suggest Dougal managed to get into the priesthood?
• In his escape from the airplane in Flight of Terror, Father Jack wants one parachute for himself and one for what?
• In the first episode of Father Jack’s Dream about taking a group of schoolgirls for volleyball practice, what is written on the blackboard behind him?
• In the beginning of New Jack City which horse is Ted cheering on in the race he is listening to on the radio?
• In Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading, what does Ted suggest that Dick Byrne should give up for Lent?

Answers just a click away. >>> (more…)

Here are the second six questions about Father Ted that helped Patrick Gibson win Mastermind in 2005.

• In Competition Times Ted is seen reading which glossy magazine which has a picture of The Pope on the front?
• During the protest over the banned film The Passion of Saint Tibulus, Father Ted has a placard with ‘Down with this sort of thing’. What’s on Dougal’s?
• In Tentacles Of Doom, what does Father Dougal think bishops do until Father Ted puts him right?
• When the parochial house is infested with rabbits Father Ted says he won’t rest until there is only one rabbit left. Which one?
• What make of ear clamps for stopping crows from pinching glasses are advertised in opticians on the mainland?
• According to Ted in Entertaining Father Stone, what was the only side-effect of Dougal being struck by lightning?

Answers just a click away, and the last of the questions tomorrow. >>> (more…)

In 2005 Galway-born Patrick Gibson from Wigan won Mastermind, a year after winning £1m on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? His specialist subject was Father Ted. Here are his first six questions.

• Father Ted repeatedly makes what claim about the missing money that was the cause of him being sent to Craggy Island?
• Which unfortunate priest is often distracted by phone calls from Ted while doing activities like knife throwing, downhill skiing, and being held at gunpoint?
• In the first episode what song does Father Dougal slip into his recitation of the Lord’s Prayer?
• In Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest, under which statue does Ted say he has left the money for the milkman?
• As physiotherapist to the over-75’s football team what does Dougal believe the magic sponge does?
• What’s the headline on the front page of the newspaper that someone is trying to show Ted while he is denouncing hypocrisy to Niamh Connolly in Rock-A-Hulu Ted?

Answers just a click away, and more of the questions tomorrow. >>> (more…)