It’s time, once again, to GO GREEN or Go Home. It’s our 2nd annual, 17-question St. Patrick Literary Quiz. (To see last year’s quiz, click here.) All questions have to do with Irish stuff– Irish writers, Irish-American writers, Irish characters, or even just random Irish literary references. Answers follow. We wish you all the luck o’ the Irish!
1. For James Joyce aficionados, what is the significance of June 16,1904?
a. the birthday of Joyce’s daughter Lucia
b. the day Ulysses is set
c. the day that Michael Furey (from “The Dead”) died after waiting in the rain outside Gretta’s window
2. In the Harry Potter series, what is the name of the Irish-born Gryffindor student and best friend of Dean Thomas?
a. Bartemius Crouch Jr.
b. Colin Creevey
c. Seamus Finnigan
3. In The Secret of Roan Inish (based on the the book The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry, by Rosalie K. Fry) is inspired by Irish legend of skin-shedding seals who become human. What are these seals called?
a. corkles
b. cormorants
c. selkies
4. What is the full name of Oscar Wilde?
a. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde
b. Oscar Felix O’Connor Wilde
c. Oscar Sullivan McConville Stuart Wilde
5. In Yeats’ poem “The Wild Swans at Coole,” how many swans does the narrator see during his earlier visit to Coole Park?
a. 46
b. 59
c. 99
6. Irish author Eoin Colfer is best known for penning which book series?
a. Artemis Fowl
b. Warriors
c. Cirque du Freak
7. In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the Lilliputians are at war with a race of people over how to open eggs. The Lilliputians prefer to open the little end. Which race of people are also known as “Big-Enders”?
a. Brobdignagians
b. Blefescudians
c. Laputans
8. Why get off the topic of Gulliver so swiftly? (Pun, pun…) What is the name of the race of intelligent horses in the last part of GT?
a. Houyhnhnms
b. Struyldbrugs
c. Yahoos
9. Which of the following is the name of a Marian Keyes novel?
a. Mango
b. Strawberry
c. Watermelon
10. Seamus Heaney died last year, on August 30, 2013. According to his son Michael, minutes before he died, he sent his last words to his wife via text message. The message? The Latin words “Noli timere.” What does that mean in English?
a. “It’s time.”
b. “Don’t be afraid.”
c. “This is not the end.”
11. Which Irish-born author wrote The Country Girls Trilogy?
a. Edna O’Brien
b. Maeve Binchy
c. Emily Lawless
12. How does the ending to George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion differ from that of the musical/ film My Fair Lady?
a. Pygmalion: Professor Henry Higgins gets into a boating accident and dies; My Fair Lady, he survives the accident.
b. Pygmalion: Eliza Doolittle rejects Higgins; My Fair Lady: Higgins realizes he misses her, and she comes back to him.
c. Pygmalion: Eliza married Colonel Pickering; My Fair Lady: Eliza marries Freddy Eynsford-Hill
13. In his song “Rave On,” Van Morrison alludes to which of the following poets?
a. John Donne
b. Walt Whitman
c. William Butler Yeats
d. All of the above
14. Which Irish-born mutant superhero had a brief tenure with the X-Men?
a. Banshee
b. Gambit
c. Havoc
15. In Oscar Wilde’s novel, who is the painter of the titular picture of Dorian Gray?
a. Alan Campbell
b. Lord Henry Wolton
c. Basil Hallward
16. In Hamlet, which character swears “by Saint Patrick”?
a. Ophelia
b. Hamlet
c. Polonius
17. Complete this James Joyce quotation: “The demand I make of my reader is that he should devote ______________ to reading my books.”
a. “one hour a day”
b. “three days a week”
c. “his whole life”
Answers:
- b. the day Ulysses is set
- c. Seamus Finnigan
- c. selkies
- a. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde
- b. 59
- a. Artemis Fowl
- b. Blefescudians
- a. Houyhnhnms
- c. Watermelon
- b. Don’t be afraid
- a. Edna O’Brien
- b. In My Fair Lady, Eliza returns to Higgins, but in Shaw’s original version, she leaves him
- d. All of the above
- a. Banshee
- c. Basil Hallward
- b. Hamlet (Act I, sc. 5, while talking to Horatio)
- c. “his whole life”
How’d You Do?
15-17 Correct: Pot o’ Gold!
11-14 Correct: Shamrock-star!
6-10 Correct: Lucky Guesser
2-5 Correct: Green around the Gills
0-1 Correct: Potato Famine
