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128 free Irish trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
14 free Irish trivia questions with answers. Irish trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Ireland and Irish Culture trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01What is the longest river in Ireland?
River Shannon
The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland, flowing for 360.5 kilometers (224.0 miles) and forming a significant geographical feature across the island.
Q 02In what year did Ireland join the European Economic Community (EEC)?
1973
Ireland became a member of the European Economic Community (EEC) on January 1, 1973, following a referendum held in May 1972.
Q 03What is the traditional Irish potato pancake, associated with the northern midlands and Ulster, called?
Boxty
Boxty is a traditional Irish potato pancake made with a mixture of raw grated potatoes and mashed potatoes, commonly found in regions like the northern midlands and Ulster.
Q 04Which Dublin-born theatre manager wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula in his spare time?
Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker managed London's Lyceum Theatre for the actor Henry Irving while writing Dracula, published in 1897.
Q 05What is the official name for the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland?
Gaeilge
The Irish language is officially known as Gaeilge and holds constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland.
Q 06Which armed insurrection against British rule seized central Dublin for a week in April 1916?
The Easter Rising
The Easter Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, and held central Dublin for about a week before surrendering.
Q 07Ireland's national anthem, 'Amhrán na bhFiann', is commonly known by what English title?
"The Soldier's Song"
"The Soldier's Song" is the anthem; 'Ireland's Call' is the song the rugby team sings.
Q 08How many traditional counties make up the entire island of Ireland, north and south together?
32
32 traditional counties: 26 form the Republic of Ireland and 6 are in Northern Ireland.
Q 09Which traditional Irish stick-and-ball game is considered one of the fastest field sports in the world?
Hurling
Hurling, one of Ireland's two national games, is played with a stick called a hurley and a ball called a sliotar, and is often cited as the fastest field sport on earth.
Q 10Which Treasury official directed the British government's relief effort during the Great Famine?
Charles Trevelyan
Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, ran famine relief from 1845 and is remembered in 'The Fields of Athenry' for 'Trevelyan's corn'.
Q 11From which country was the 16-year-old Saint Patrick carried off by pirates as a slave?
Britain
Patrick was seized from Roman Britain at sixteen by Irish raiders and spent six years herding sheep before escaping, as he recounts in his Confessio.
Q 12On which date is Ulysses set, now marked each year as Bloomsday?
16 June 1904
Ulysses unfolds on 16 June 1904, the day Joyce first walked out with Nora Barnacle; Bloomsday celebrations in Dublin retrace Leopold Bloom's route.
Q 13County Antrim's Giant's Causeway is 40,000 interlocking columns of which rock?
Basalt
The Giant's Causeway columns are basalt, formed when a Paleogene lava flow cooled and contracted into mostly hexagonal pillars around 50 to 60 million years ago.
Q 21How many native reptile species does Ireland have?
One
The common lizard is the sole native reptile, and there are no snakes at all.
Q 22Roughly what share of the island of Ireland was covered by woodland in the early 2020s?
About 10%
About 10%, against a European average above 33%, and most of that is non-native conifer plantation.
Q 23In which year did the Irish state officially become the Republic of Ireland?
1949
The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 took effect on 18 April 1949, ending the king's last role in the state and taking Ireland out of the Commonwealth.
Q 24Bannow Strand, where the Norman invasion of Ireland began in 1169, is in which county?
Q 14How long was the lease Arthur Guinness signed in 1759 on the St James's Gate brewery?
9,000 years
The rent was 45 pounds a year, and the site went on to become one of the largest breweries in the British Empire.
Q 15Carrauntoohil, the highest peak on the island of Ireland, stands in which county?
Kerry
Carrauntoohil, at 1,039 m, is the summit of the MacGillycuddy's Reeks in County Kerry, west of Killarney.
Q 16How many Irish writers won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the 20th century?
Four
Four: Shaw, Yeats, Beckett and Heaney. James Joyce, arguably the most influential of all, never won.
Q 17The Republic of Ireland's rapid economic boom from 1995 onwards was nicknamed what?
The Celtic Tiger
The Celtic Tiger saw real GDP grow an average of 9.6% a year from 1995 to 1999, the year Ireland joined the euro.
Q 18What is the title of the Republic of Ireland's head of government?
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is appointed by the president on the Dáil's nomination; the Tánaiste is the deputy, and the Ceann Comhairle chairs the Dáil.
Q 19Which Irish monk founded a mission on the island of Iona in 563?
Saint Columba
Saint Columba's Iona mission spread Celtic Christianity to Scotland, England and the Frankish Empire.
Q 20Which seafaring people founded most of Ireland's major coastal settlements, including Dublin, Limerick and Waterford?
Vikings
Vikings founded Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Wexford and Waterford; the Normans came centuries later.
Wexford
Bannow Bay lies on the south coast of County Wexford; Robert FitzStephen's force of roughly 600 landed there in May 1169 and took Wexford town.
Q 25Which Anglo-Irish chivalric body, founded in 1783, adopted blue rather than green as its colour?
Order of St Patrick
The Order of St Patrick, created by George III in 1783, used sky blue for its robes and ribbon, the origin of the colour known as St Patrick's blue.
Q 26The first Saint Patrick's Day parade held in Ireland took place in 1903 in which city?
Waterford
Waterford held Ireland's first St Patrick's Day parade in 1903, the year the day became an official public holiday; North American parades date to the 1700s.
Q 27Which United Irishmen co-founder first called Ireland 'the Emerald Isle' in a 1795 poem?
William Drennan
William Drennan, a Belfast physician and United Irishmen founder, wrote of 'the Emerald Isle' in his 1795 poem 'When Erin First Rose'.
Q 28Which British Overseas Territory keeps Saint Patrick's Day as a public holiday?
Montserrat
Montserrat's Irish heritage dates to 17th-century settlers, and its holiday also recalls a 1768 slave uprising.
Q 29What is the Irish custom of dropping a sprig into the last drink of the night, then swallowing it or tossing it, called?
Drowning the shamrock
'Drowning the shamrock' ends St Patrick's Day: the sprig worn all day goes into the final glass of whiskey and is then swallowed or thrown over the shoulder for luck.
Q 30The Guinness logo is modelled on which famous instrument?
The Trinity College harp
Guinness based its harp on the medieval Trinity College harp (the 'Brian Boru' harp), adopting it in 1862 and trademarking it in 1876; the state harp faces the other way.