50 free Dublin trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Dublin's Irish name means 'town of the hurdled ford' and its English name means 'black pool', and both places still exist under the modern city. This quiz starts there, with the Vikings of 841, Strongbow and Henry II, Dublin Castle and the Pale, Elizabeth I's Protestant college, and the Georgian boom that briefly made Dublin the second city of the British Empire. It goes on through Arthur Guinness's 9,000-year lease, the Easter Rising and Kilmainham Gaol, Bloody Sunday at Croke Park and the handover of the Castle to Michael Collins. Then it walks the city: the Liffey and its Northside-Southside divide, the Ha'penny Bridge and its toll, Phoenix Park's deer and Papal Cross, the Spire on the spot where Nelson's Pillar was blown up, Trinity's Old Library and the Book of Kells, Swift's cathedral, Temple Bar, Grafton Street and Molly Malone. Culture questions cover Handel's Messiah, four Nobel laureates, Bloomsday, U2 and the Dubliners, and modern Dublin's Silicon Docks and record-breaking airport. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Dublin and its landmarks and events, and each question shows the sentence that supports it. Try our Ireland and Irish Culture quiz for the rest of the island.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name Dublin comes from the Irish Dubhlinn, meaning what?
Black pool
It refers to a dark tidal pool where the River Poddle met the main river, behind today's Dublin Castle.
Q 02What does Baile Atha Cliath, the Irish name for Dublin, mean?
Town of the hurdled ford
The ford crossed the river near today's Father Mathew Bridge; locals shorten it to Blea Cliath.
Q 03On which river does Dublin stand?
The Liffey
It divides the city into the Northside and Southside and reaches the sea at Dublin Bay.
Q 04The Vikings established a fortified base at Dublin in roughly which year?
841
It stayed largely under Norse control until the Norman invasion of 1169, and the slave trade drove much of its early wealth.
Q 05Which year does Ireland recognise as Dublin's founding, marked with a millennium in 1988?
988
The Molly Malone statue was unveiled as part of the millennium festivities.
Q 06Ptolemy's map of about 140 AD marks a settlement near Dublin under what name?
Eblana
Fish traps found under the Convention Centre show people were living on the bay 6,000 years ago.
Q 07Which Norman lord, enlisted by the exiled King of Leinster, seized Dublin and declared himself its king?
Strongbow
Henry II arrived in 1171 to make sure his vassal did not get ideas, and named himself Lord of Ireland.
Q 08Dublin Castle was founded in 1204 on the orders of which English monarch?
John
It was the seat of British rule until it was ceremonially handed to Michael Collins's provisional government in 1922.
Q 09Dublin was the heart of which strip of English-controlled territory in medieval Ireland?
The Pale
The phrase 'beyond the pale' comes from the lands outside it; Robert the Bruce tried and failed to take the city in 1317.
Q 10Which monarch founded Trinity College in 1592 as a Protestant university?
Elizabeth I
She also ordered the two Catholic cathedrals converted; Trinity is Ireland's oldest university and houses the world's oldest student society.
Q 11In the Georgian 18th century, Dublin briefly ranked as what?
Second-largest city of the British Empire
Its population passed 130,000 and it was fifth-largest in Europe; the Wide Streets Commission of 1757 shaped its layout.
Q 12Arthur Guinness's 1759 lease on the St James's Gate brewery ran for how long?
9,000 years
The rent was 45 pounds a year; the company has since bought the land outright.
Q 13At the top of the Guinness Storehouse, visitors drink their pint in which bar?
The Gravity Bar
It sits on the seventh floor with views across the city; the British queen visited in 2011.
Q 21Which sport's association has its headquarters at Croke Park?
Gaelic games (GAA)
It also hosted Ireland's rugby and soccer teams while Lansdowne Road was rebuilt into the Aviva Stadium.
Q 22Where do both houses of the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas, meet?
Leinster House
The former ducal residence on Kildare Street has housed parliament since the Free State was founded in 1922; the President lives in Phoenix Park.
Q 23Phoenix Park's 16 km wall encloses roughly how many hectares?
707
It is one of Europe's largest walled city parks and holds the zoo, the President's residence and the US ambassador's house.
Q 14Handel's Messiah received its first performance in Dublin in which year?
1742
It was staged at Neal's Music Hall on Fishamble Street on 13 April.
Q 15The Ha'penny Bridge of 1816 got its name from what?
A halfpenny toll to cross it
It was officially the Wellington Bridge; William Walsh held the right to charge the toll for 100 years.
Q 16The Easter Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April, in which year?
1916
It lasted six days; Patrick Pearse surrendered on 29 April and sixteen leaders were later executed.
Q 17Which building on O'Connell Street served as the rebels' headquarters during the Easter Rising?
The General Post Office
The Proclamation of the Republic was read outside it, and its columns are still pocked with bullet marks.
Q 18The leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed at which Dublin prison, now a museum?
Kilmainham Gaol
Built in 1796 as the 'New Gaol', it was decommissioned in 1924 after the Free State shot its own first Civil War prisoners there.
Q 19Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, saw British forces open fire on a crowd at which venue?
The GAA ground on Jones's Road
The stadium is now Croke Park; the shootings were a reprisal for Michael Collins's Squad killing members of the Cairo Gang that morning.
Q 20Croke Park's capacity of 82,300 makes it which-largest stadium in Europe?
Third
Only the Camp Nou and Wembley are bigger; it is the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association.
Q 24Which animals have roamed Phoenix Park since the 17th century?
Fallow deer
The Duke of Ormond fenced the land as a hunting park in 1662; the Papal Cross marks John Paul II's 1979 mass there.
Q 25Dublin Zoo opened to the public in which year?
1831
Its lions were world-famous in the 19th century, and it now draws over a million visitors a year.
Q 26The Spire of Dublin stands on the site of which earlier monument?
Nelson's Pillar
Former IRA members blew up the pillar in 1966; the 120 m stainless-steel spire went up in 2003.
Q 27How tall is the Spire of Dublin, officially the Monument of Light?
About 120 m
It stands on O'Connell Street and was completed in 2003.
Q 28The Book of Kells, on show at Trinity College, was created around which year?
800 AD
It contains the four Gospels in Latin on calf vellum and has been at Trinity since 1661.
Q 29Trinity College's Old Library is Dublin's second most visited attraction with how many visitors a year?
Over 900,000
The Long Room also holds the Trinity College harp, the model for Ireland's national emblem, and a copy of the 1916 Proclamation.
Q 30Which satirist, author of Gulliver's Travels, was dean of St Patrick's Cathedral from 1713 to 1745?
Jonathan Swift
He funded an almshouse and a hospital, and is buried in the cathedral, which is Ireland's largest church.