Test your family and friends with our Christmas Day quiz

CHRISTMAS Day is all about festive fun and friendly competition with the family.

So why not test your knowledge on a range of subjects with our Grand Christmas Quiz…

(Answers below)

Irish knowledge

1. RMS Titanic — what did the initials RMS stand for?
2. Queenstown was the colonial name for Cobh. Which queen is referenced?
3. The bird which has the scientific name Regulus regulus is the smallest in Ireland, and indeed throughout Europe. What is its common name?
4. How were Berehaven, Queenstown (modern Cobh) and Lough Swilly known collectively until 1938 when the British ‘handed them back’ to Irish Free State (as it then was)?
5. What is the name of the ancient Irish festival usually regarded as the main forerunner of Halloween?
6. The ring fort Dún Aonghasa (Dub Aengus) is found in which group of islands of the west coast of Ireland?
7. What is the highest rank in the Irish Defence Forces, in effect the head of the army after the President?
8. Which Scottish born Irishman wrote Sherlock Holmes?
9. Which historical figure, born in Kerry, was known as The Liberator?
10. How is An Gorta Mór known in English?

General knowledge

11. Which artist painted the Mona Lisa?
12. Route Irish was a notorious journey in which war-torn city in the Middle East?
13. His Russian name translates as Bob Parsnip. Who is this Moscow-born, Nobel laureate whose novels have been adapted into major films, television dramas and theatrical works?
14. Which fruit’s seeds are on the outside of the skin?
15. Which metal has the symbol Au in the Periodic Table?
16. According to Greek mythology, who is the god of love?
17. Which explorer was born in Genoa, died in Valladolid, is buried in Seville and visited Bristol and Galway?
18. Spumante, frizzante and tranquillo are all types of what drink?
19. Which two major rivers meet just north of the US city of St Louis?
20. What does QR stand for in ‘QR code’?

Writing and the arts

21 Long Island is Colm Tóibín’s sequel to which of his previous novels?

22. Joseph Conrad and Samuel Beckett share an unusual trait in their writing — what is it that marks them out from most other writers?
23. Who is the author of the play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots when first performed in Dublin?
24. What is Shakespeare’s Danish prince called?
25. Which English writer, famous for writing Animal Farm and 1984, was married to Eileen O’Shaughnessy?
26. The portrait of Innocent X by Velázquez influenced a painting known as The Screaming Popes — by which Irish-born painter?
27. Who is the author of the 1934 novel Good Behaviour, a darkly comic story about an Anglo-Irish family: was it Edna O’Brien, Molly Keane, Maeve Binchy, Nuala O’Faolain?
28. Who wrote Jane Eyre?
29. Who wrote The Riddle of the Sands? (It was written by an Irish nationalist whose son became President of Ireland)
30. Which opera by Gilbert and Sullivan features the song A Policeman’s Lot is Not a Happy One?

General knowledge 2

31. Which three countries name the storms that sweep in from the Atlantic?
32. “Fracking” is a contraction of what phrase?
33. Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?
34. Sir John Franklin’s third and final expedition was an attempt to traverse which sea passage in 1845?
35. Besides Ireland, which is the only other EU nation where English is one of the official languages?
36. What animal provides mohair?
37. Which element has the scientific symbol Fe?
38. In what year did the Berlin Wall fall?
39. What is the national flower of Japan?
40. Which planet is known as the Red Planet?

Sport

41. Which Irish football club has won the most League of Ireland titles?
42. The Flying Ducks, Dublin Buccaneers, Kilkenny Storm and Dún Dealgan Warriors are just four members of an Irish sports league. Which sport?
43. Which county holds the record for the most All-Ireland Senior Football Championship titles??
44. Where are the Gaelic Grounds?
45. Which Irish golfer won the Open Championship in 2019?
46. Which Irish athlete won the silver medal in the 5000 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics?
47. Which Irish cyclist won the Tour de France in 1987?
48. What is the name of the equivalent trophy to the Sam Maguire Cup that is awarded to the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship winners?
49. In which sport would you perform a slam dunk?
50. Stephen Cluxton is the only player to have won seven All-Ireland Senior Football Championships as captain. For which county does he play?

Read on for the answers….

Irish knowledge

1. The ‘RMS’ stood for ‘Royal Mail Steamer’, although this changed in later ships to ‘Royal Mail Ship’; 2. Queen Victoria; 3. The goldcrest; 4. The Treaty Ports; 5. Samhain; 6. The Aran Islands; 7. Lieutenant General; 8. Arthur Conan Doyle; 9. Daniel O’Connell; 10. The Great Famine

General knowledge answers

11. Leonardo da Vinci; 12. Baghdad; 13. Boris Pastarnak; 14. Strawberry; 15. Gold; 17. Christopher Columbus; 18. Prosecco; 19. The Mississippi and the Missouri; 20. Quick Response

Writing and the arts

21. Brooklyn; 22. They both predominantly wrote in languages other than in their mother tongue (Beckett in French, Conrad in English, although born Polish); 23. John Millington Synge; 24. Hamlet; 25 George Orwell; 26. Francis Bacon; 27. Molly Keane; 28. Charlotte Brontë; 29. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers; 30. The Pirates of Penzance

General knowledge 2

31. Ireland, Britain, Netherlands; 32. Hydraulic fracturing; 33. Amelia Earhart; 34. The Northwest Passage; 35. Malta; 36. The goat; 37. Iron; 38. 1989; 39. The cherry blossom; 40. Mars

Sport

41. Shamrock Rovers; 42. Ice hockey; 43. Kerry; 44. Limerick; 45. Shane Lowry; 46. Sonia O’Sullivan; 47. Stephen Roche; 48. Liam McCarthy Cup; 49. Basketball; 50. Dublin