Season 1 - Week 10 F

Question 1

Born in Donegal in 1960 and having sold an estimated 75 million albums worldwide, what female musician is the biggest-selling Irish solo artist of all time?

Answer 1

Enya (Enya Brennan / Eithne Ní Bhraonáin)

Question 2

Commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, which famous monument in Paris stands at the western end of the Champs-Élysées, in the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle (a.k.a. Place de l’Étoile)?

Answer 2

Arc de Triomphe

Question 3

What style of railway line, designed by French engineer Charles Lartigue, linked the County Kerry towns of Listowel and Ballybunion between 1888 and 1924? Since 2003, a 1 km-long section of this line has been in operation as a tourist attraction.

Answer 3

Monorail

Question 4

Although the most southerly point in the 50 US states is located in Hawaii, the most southerly point belonging to the United States is Rose Atoll, located at latitude 14° South in what unincorporated US territory in the Pacific?

Answer 4

American Samoa

Question 5

The Act to Promote the Defense of the United States was a World War II aid program under which the UK, France, China, and later the Soviet Union were supplied with food, oil, and military equipment by the US between 1941 and 1945. This policy is better known by which two-word hyphenated term?

Answer 5

Lend-Lease

Question 6

Best known for their early 1990s hits such as Pump Up The Jam and Get Up (Before the Night is Over) , dance pop act Technotronic are the all-time best-selling band to have originated in which EU country?

Answer 6

Belgium

Question 7

What is the name for any segment of a circle whose endpoints lie on the circle and which passes through the centre? This is the largest distance between any two points on the circle, and measures twice the length of the radius.

Answer 7

Diameter

Question 8

Which collection of 10,000 NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), consisting of cartoon-style drawings of primates, has raised over $26m via online auctions during 2021? These artworks are often used as profile photos on the social media accounts of their owners - who include the talk show host Jimmy Fallon and the
rapper Post Malone.

Answer 8

Bored Ape Yacht Club

Question 9

Which politician succeeded Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister of Japan in September 2020, a role he held until October 2021?

Answer 9

Yoshihide Suga

Question 10

Born in Derry in 1987, name the Irish sprinter, frequently described as “the fastest para-athlete of all time”, who has won six gold medals at the Paralympics? He made history in 2010 when he competed at the open (i.e. non-Paralympic) European Athletics Championships, ultimately reaching the semi-finals of the 100 metres.

Answer 10

Jason Smyth

Question 11

The only branch of the National Museum of Ireland not located in Dublin, the Museum of Country Life can be found in the village of Turlough, just outside what major Connacht town?

Answer 11

Castlebar

Question 12

Born in Iran to British parents in 1919, who is the only female British author to date to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature? She received the award in 2007 for her body of work which includes the novels The Grass is Singing , The Golden Notebook and The Good Terrorist.

Answer 12

Doris Lessing

Question 13

It’s not Lego, but the signature figure in which line of toys, created by German inventor Hans Beck in 1974, is a 7½ cm (3 inch) tall human figure with a smiling face? While normally aimed at children ages 4-
12, in 2021 this brand released a model of the USS Enterprise costing €350 for the ‘kidult’ market.

Answer 13

Playmobil

Question 14

Hugely popular with Irish children of the 1980s and 90s, what green animal-shaped ice lolly produced by HB was primarily flavoured with apple and featured in a memorable animated TV ad? Relaunched more than once over the years, it is not currently available as an ice lolly but lives on as a namesake alcopop flavour (guaranteed to rot your teeth and your liver in one go!) A two word alliterative answer is required.

Answer 14

Fat Frog

Question 15

The 1993 single Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) , the biggest hit by British jazz-rap band Us3, prominently used a sample from the 1964 jazz standard Cantaloupe Island , which was written and performed by what jazz pianist and keyboardist? A former member of the Miles Davis Quintet, he went on to enjoy significant solo success from the 1970s onwards.

Answer 15

Herbie Hancock

Question 16

A common surname of German origin, “Schneider” translates into English as what occupation? This English word is also used (with a slight spelling change) as a surname and less commonly as a given name.

Answer 16

Tailor

Question 17

Before being debunked in more recent times, the Bermuda Triangle was the subject of a prevalent urban myth involving the unexplained disappearances of many ships and aircraft during the 20th century. The most commonly-used definition for the Triangle gives its three vertices as Bermuda, Miami, and what
island, an unincorporated US territory?

Answer 17

Puerto Rico

Question 18

Introduced in 1974 and available in Ireland for well over 2 decades, what HB ice lolly consisted of strawberry and banana ice cream, topped with lemon jelly covered in chocolate? (This unique flavour
combination makes us thankful no alcopop version yet exists!) A three-word alliterative answer is required.

Answer 18

Wibbly Wobbly Wonder

Question 19

Initially launched in 1969, what range of construction toys produced by the Lego Group is designed for children from 1½ to 5 years old and uses bricks which are twice the length, height, and width of traditional Lego bricks?

Answer 19

Duplo

Question 20

The Clonmacnoise and West Offaly Railway was a 9km-long narrow-gauge railway that operated as a tourist attraction from the mid-1990s until 2008. Originally constructed for industrial transport, throughout its life this railway remained in the ownership of which Irish semi-state body, established in 1946?

Answer 20

Bord na Móna

Question 21

Located in Dublin’s docklands, what is the four-letter name of the Irish emigration museum which has been voted Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction at the World Travel Awards for the past three years?

Answer 21

EPIC

Question 22

Born West Virginia in 1892, who is the first of only three American female writers to date to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature? When she was 4 months old, she and her family moved to China, the country in which most of her best-known novels are set.

Answer 22

Pearl S Buck

Question 23

Best known for their 1980s hits Big in Japan and Forever Young , pop band Alphaville are among the most successful pop acts to have originated in which EU country?

Answer 23

Germany

Question 24

A common surname of German origin, “Bauer” translates into English as what traditional occupation? This English word is also used as a surname, albeit a surname rather less common than “Taylor”.

Answer 24

Farmer (accept peasant)

Question 25

What is the name for a line drawn perpendicular to a radius of a circle, through the end point of the radius lying on the circumference? In order words, a line which touches a circle at only one point.

Answer 25

Tangent

Question 26

Which set of NFTs, launched in June 2017 by the Larva Labs studio, are commonly credited with starting the NFT craze of 2021? In June of this year, a single example of this NFT set inspired by the London punk scene changed hands for $11.8 million at Sotheby’s.

Answer 26

CryptoPunks

Question 27

Name the middle distance runner from Ballymena, County Antrim who has won four gold medals for Ireland across the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games? Two of these gold medals were in the 800 metres and the other two in the 1,500 metres.

Answer 27

Michael McKillop

Question 28

Another 90s hit single to prominently use a Herbie Hancock sample was Groove is in the Heart by DeeeLite. The sample in question came from the track Bring Down the Birds, from the soundtrack for which
1966 movie starring David Hemmings? This mystery-thriller was the first entirely English-language film by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni.

Answer 28

Blow-Up

Question 29

During the Tudor conquest of Ireland, what three-word name was given to the legal mechanism by which Irish clans were to be converted from a power structure rooted in clan loyalties to a late-feudal system under the English legal system? In a nutshell, this policy sought to assimilate the Gaelic leadership into the new Tudor Kingdom of Ireland and the Anglican Church.

Answer 29

Surrender and regrant

Question 30

In 2019, the roof of which famous Paris building, originally constructed between 1163 and 1260, caught fire and burned for around 15 hours? The government of France currently plans for its reconstruction to be completed by Spring 2024, in time for the opening of that year’s Summer Olympics.

Answer 30

Notre-Dame de Paris

Question 31

In the early 1980s, before she went solo, Enya was a member of which highly successful Celtic folk band, formed in 1970 by her siblings Ciarán, Pól, and Moya Brennan and their two uncles? Appropriately, the band’s name is derived from the Irish word for “family”.

Answer 31

Clannad

Question 32

Who is the current prime minister of Japan? This man replaced Yoshihide Suga as President of the Liberal Democratic Party on the 29th of September this year and became PM five days later.

Answer 32

Fumio Kishida

Question 33

As of August 2021, over 3 million Irish people had downloaded which pandemic-related app, developed by Waterford-based company NearForm and initially released by the Irish Health Service Executive in July 2020? (Minimum 2-word answer required)

Answer 33

COVID Tracker Ireland

Question 34

Which of the 8 American colleges that make up the Ivy League is located in a namesake town in New Jersey?

Answer 34

Princeton

Question 35

Former One Direction singer Harry Styles made his acting debut in which 2017 World War II movie, directed by Christopher Nolan?

Answer 35

Dunkirk

Question 36

The name of which village, situated on the Glencullen River in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains, is a combination of the names of an Irish county and the county town of a different Irish county?

Answer 36

Enniskerry

Question 37

Which double act topped the Irish singles charts at Christmas 1990 with the appropriately named song The Christmas No. 1 ?

Answer 37

Zig & Zag

Question 38

Formerly an actress and comedian but more recently working as a clinical psychologist, name the longtime wife of Scottish comedian Sir Billy Connolly who wrote his best-selling 2002 biography, simply titled Billy ?

Answer 38

Pamela Stephenson

Question 39

Belonging to the class Myxini , what eel-shaped, jawless mucus-producing marine fish are the only known living animals that have a skull but no vertebral column?

Answer 39

Hagfish (accept slime eel)

Question 40

Considered one of the most influential scientific texts in history, name the Greek-language mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planets, written by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE?

Answer 40

The Almagest

Question 41

Introduced in the 1970s as an Irish version of Britain’s Green Cross Code, what 6-step checklist (and accompanying jingle) featured in TV ads for decades, teaching Irish children the correct way to cross the road?

Answer 41

Safe Cross Code

Question 42

“Only you can prevent forest fires” is the catchphrase of which animal character, first introduced in 1944 and star of the
longest-running public service ad campaign in US history?

Answer 42

Smokey Bear

Question 43

What Irish broadcaster served as chairman of the Road Safety Authority between 2006 and 2014, during which time Irish road deaths decreased by almost 50%?

Answer 43

Gay Byrne

Question 44

What English actor played the Green Cross Code man in the original 1970s British road safety campaign? He is best known for his pivotal role in a hugely popular movie franchise.

Answer 44

David Prowse

(the man in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars)

Question 45

Name the society who were the main organising force of the 1798 Irish Rebellion? Counting Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet among its members, this association was formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure representative government for Ireland and/or an independent republic. They disbanded not long after the failed 1803 Rebellion.

Answer 45

(Society of) United Irishmen

Question 46

The Tulip Revolution of 2005 led to the overthrow of Askar Akayev, the then-president of what Central Asian country?

Answer 46

Kyrgyzstan

Question 47

“Down With This Sort Of Thing” and “Careful Now” were placards carried by Fathers Ted and Dougal in a memorable
episode of Father Ted where the two characters chained themselves to the railings outside the Craggy Island cinema to protest the showing of what fictional film?

Answer 47

The Passion of Saint Tibulus

Question 48

Name the English suffragette who died after apparently “throwing herself under the King’s horse” during the 1913 Epsom Derby? Although modern analysis tends to conclude that she was merely attempting to attach a “Votes for Women” banner to the horse and had not intended to cause an accident.

Answer 48

Emily Wilding Davison

Question 49

Name the American comedian and actress whose long and glittering CV includes creating and starring in the classic US sitcom 30 Rock , as well as 9 years as a cast member of Saturday Night Live , where she famously impersonated US politician Sarah Palin?

Answer 49

Tina Fey

Question 50

Born in Kildare in 1984, name the Irish comedian who along with Sharon Horgan co-created, co-writes and co-stars in the
acclaimed Channel 4 comedy-drama This Way Up ? (2019-present) She also stars alongside Paul Rudd in the Netflix series Living with Yourself .

Answer 50

Aisling Bea (accept Aisling O’Sullivan)

Question 51

English actress and singer Hannah Waddingham won the 2021 Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the Apple TV+ sitcom Ted Lasso , where she plays the owner of what London football club? Although the club is fictional, it does share its name with a district of south-west London, as well as a US state capital.

Answer 51

AFC Richmond

Question 52

Starring Barbra Streisand, the movie musicals Funny Girl and Funny Lady were both highly fictionalised accounts of the life of what American comedian and actress of the 1920s, 30s and 40s?

Answer 52

Fanny Brice (Fania Borach)

Question 53

Famously murdered in Mexico City in 1940 by an assassin wielding a mountaineering ice axe (not an ice pick as sometimes described), the Marxist revolutionary Lev Davidovich Bronstein is better known to history by what name?

Answer 53

Leon Trotsky

Question 54

The 1202 manuscript Liber Abaci (The Book of Calculation ) is credited with introducing the Hindu-Arabic numerical system to Europe, the same system we use today. It was written by the mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, nowadays much better known by what name, given to him by a 19th century historian?

Answer 54

Fibonacci

(short for “filius Bonacci” - Latin for ‘son of Bonacci’)

Question 55

Born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1965, rock guitarist Saul Hudson is much better known by what stage name? He was a member of one of the best-selling rock bands in history from 1985 to 1996, rejoining them in 2016.

Answer 55

Slash

Question 56

The American boxer Walker Smith Jr, who won world titles in two different weight divisions in the 1940s and 50s, is better
known by what ring name, partly adopted when he tried to circumvent age restrictions by borrowing a friend’s birth
certificate?

Answer 56

Sugar Ray Robinson

Question 57

First recorded in 450 AD, “Patriarch of the West” was one of the titles formerly associated with which office? The use of the title was renounced in 2006 by a man born Joseph Ratzinger, the then-occupier of the office.

Answer 57

Pope of the Roman Catholic Church / Bishop of Rome

Question 58

Since 1991, Bartholomew I has held the title of of Ecumenical Patriarch of which city? By historical tradition, this office is
regarded as “first among equals” (primus inter pares) in the Eastern Orthodox Church - in other words, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide.

Answer 58

Constantinople (accept Istanbul or Byzantium)

Question 59

Tawadros II or Theodore II is the 118th and current Pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark. Following the death of his predecessor in 2012, Tawadros’s name was chosen in a ceremony by a blindfolded five-year-old boy, thereby becoming the leader of which Church?

Answer 59

Coptic Orthodox Church

Question 60

Since 2018 the Tewahedo Church, the largest Oriental Orthodox church, has had two patriarchs, Abune Merkorios and
Abune Mathias. This unusual arrangement was brought about by the repatriation of Merkorios, who had been forced to flee
the country due to regime change in 1991. In which country is the Tewahedo Orthodox Church based?

Answer 60

Ethiopia

Question 61

Different versions of which song have been the Irish Christmas Number One in 1984, 1989 and 2004?

Answer 61

Do They Know It’s Christmas? (accept Band Aid)

Question 62

While it may be a perennial Christmas favourite, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You only reached No 3 in Ireland when first released in 1994. Which song by a British boy band topped the charts that year?

Answer 62

Stay Another Day

(by East 17)

Question 63

Following a online campaign, Rage Against the Machine famously had the 2009 UK Christmas Number One, with Killing in
the Name . However, this campaign was not as successful in Ireland - accordingly, which singer, the winner of the sixth
series of The X-Factor, had the Irish Christmas No 1 that year, with his version of the Miley Cyrus song The Climb ?

Answer 63

Joe McElderry

Question 64

In 2020, which Dublin-born singer-songwriter became the first Irish artist to have a Christmas Number One single in Ireland since Mario Rosenstock in 2005?

Answer 64

Dermot Kennedy

Question 65

Located beside the racecourse that each year hosts the Istabraq Hurdle, in which Irish county would you find Ireland’s most
famous railway interchange station, Limerick Junction?

Answer 65

Tipperary

Question 66

The birthplace of Herbert Kitchener and situated near the estuary of the Ballyline River, in which Irish county is the town of
Ballylongford?

Answer 66

Kerry

Question 67

The birthplace of modern singer-songwriter Kieran Goss, and situated about 9km from the border, in which Irish county is the village of Mayobridge?

Answer 67

Down

Question 68

The home town of Irish singer Tommy Fleming, and situated on the Inagh river, a tributary of the Moy, the village of Aclare
is located in which Irish county?

Answer 68

Sligo

Question 69

On August 9th 1974, facing almost certain impeachment and removal from office, who became the first American president
to resign?

Answer 69

Richard M. Nixon

Question 70

Less than a year before Nixon’s resignation, who had become only the second US vice president to resign, following allegations of financial irregularities?

Answer 70

Spiro Agnew

Question 71

Which British politician, then the Deputy Prime Minister, resigned in 1990 over differences with Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher over government policy on the European Monetary System? Thatcher lasted only fifteen more days as Prime
Minister after this event.

Answer 71

Geoffrey Howe

Question 72

One person who refused calls to resign was which then-Fine Gael TD, who in 2019 filed a lawsuit against Dublin’s Dean Hotel for alleged injuries, following a fall from an indoor swing in July 2015? This controversy, known as “swing-gate”, led to
her de-selection by Fine Gael as a candidate in the 2020 general election.

Answer 72

Maria Bailey