It’s March, the month when everyone claims to be Irish, if only for a day. But how well do you really know the Emerald Isle and its celebrated people? See if you can conjure the luck o’ the Irish with this month’s Fact Funhouse quiz!
1. From 1995 to 2007, Ireland’s surging economy earned it a new nickname in the global financial markets. What was it?
a. The Emerald Boom
b. The Pot ‘o Gold
c. The Celtic Tiger
d. The Blarney Beacon
2. Which classic gothic horror novel was penned by an Irish author?
a. Frankenstein
b. Dracula
c. The Fall of the House of Usher
d. The Castle of Otranto
3. Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.
a. True
b. False
4. This Irish folk tune tells the improbable story of a giant sailing ship with 27 masts and a cargo hold that carried (among many other things) 8 million bales of old nanny goats’ tails.
a. The Irish Rover
b. The Colossus of Cork
c. The Star of the County Down
d. On the Banks o’ the Bann
5. While we’re on the subject of music, “Molly Malone” is a mournful tune that tells the story of a maiden who died of a fever. What was Molly’s occupation?
a. A washer woman
b. A fishmonger
c. A woman of ill repute
d. A pub waitress
6. This Irish singer was famously banned by NBC’s Saturday Night Live after tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a live on-air performance.
a. Sinead O’Connor
b. Shane MacGowan
c. Bono
d. Dolores O’Riordan
7. This stone, built into the battlements of its namesake castle in County Cork, bestows a gift for flattery upon those who give it a smooch—an act that requires some physical contortion.
a. The Stone of Excalibur
b. The Rock of Robert the Bruce
c. The Blarney Stone
d. The Kilnasaggart Stone
8. Who was the leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1798?
a. Wolfe Tone
b. William Grant
c. John Jameson
d. William Wallace
9. When did Ireland become a republic?
a. 1798
b. 1916
c. 1922
d. 1949
10. Which of these American celebrities has Irish roots?
a. Walt Disney
b. Tom Cruise
c. Christina Aguilera
d. Bruce Springsteen
Answers
- The moniker Celtic Tiger was coined in 1994 by Morgan Stanley analyst Kevin Gardiner, who drew a parallel between Ireland’s rapid growth and that of the “Asian Tigers” (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) that had experienced similar economic transformations in previous decades.
- Inspired by Eastern European folklore and the cruel 15th-century Prince Vlad the Impaler, Dublin-born Bram Stoker gave us Dracula in 1897.
- False. While Northern Ireland remains part of the UK, the Republic of Ireland is an island nation unto itself.
- The name of the tall ship of tall tales is The Irish Rover. While the origin of the tune possibly reaches back to the 19th century, a collaborative recording by The Dubliners and The Pogues charted in the UK and Ireland in the late 1980s.
- Like her parents before her, Molly was a fishmonger, pushing her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow, crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”
- Expressing a protest against the Catholic Church, Sinead O’Connor shredded a photo of the Pope and threw the pieces to the floor of Studio 8H. The following Saturday night, SNL guest host Joe Pesci presented the restored photo to the camera during his opening monologue.
- It takes a trusted helper—and a bit of nerve—to bend backward over the castle parapet and touch your lips to the Blarney Stone. Before iron safety bars were installed, visitors were dangled by their ankles!
- The leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 was Wolfe Tone, who undoubtedly has one of the coolest rebel names in all of history. Condemned to death for treason, he cheated the hangman by cutting his own throat with a penknife.
- Although Ireland became a free state in 1922, it wasn’t until 1949 that it left the British Commonwealth of Nations and became a republic.
- If you guessed all of the above, you’re correct! Disney, Cruise, Aguilera and Springsteen all trace part of their ancestry to the Emerald Isle.