Landmarks of Ireland (1) Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Europa

Opened in July 1971, at the start of over 25 years of political conflict known as 'the Troubles', the Europa Hotel is said to have been the target of - or suffered damage in - no less than 33 bombings between 1972 and 1993, mostly carried out by the IRA. The hotel stands beside the beautiful Grand Opera House, where Hillary Clinton spoke to community workers including myself in 1995, and across the road from the famously ornate Crown Liquor Saloon with its carved wooden columns, 'snugs', mosaic floor and granite-topped bar counter.

Answer: 'The Quiet Man'

The film starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Victor McLaglen, was filmed on location mostly in the grounds of Ashford Castle in Cong, with the village itself used to create the fictional village of Innisfree where ex-boxer Sean Thornton (Wayne) returns to his family farm and marries Mary Kate Danaher (O'Hara). Other scenes were shot in a variety of locations throughout Counties Mayo and Galway. 'The Quiet Man' was nominated for seven Oscars, winning two (including Best Director) - but neither John Wayne or Maureen O'Hara received nominations.

Answer: Belleek

Belleek is the oldest pottery in Ireland. Pottery was first made in the area in 1849, when kaolin and feldspar were found on local land, and the pottery itself was established in 1857. Pottery made at Belleek is parian porcelain, renowned for its fineness and translucency, and it's collected throughout the world. I brought some with me when I visited a Nepalese friend in Kathmandu a few years ago, although it wasn't one of the pieces that can cost several thousands of pounds!

Answer: The General Post Office

The choice of the GPO as the headquarters for the Rising was symbolic - located as it is in the heart of Dublin, on Sackville (now O'Connell) Street - rather than being a militarily effective location. The British army merely bombarded the building with heavy artillery, forcing the Irish Volunteers to abandon it after five days, and to surrender two days later. Twelve hundred Irish Volunteers in total, armed only with rifles, confronted 16,000 British soldiers in Dublin with artillery pieces and the gunboat Helga.

Davy Byrne's and Swenys Chemists are both real locations which featured prominently in James Joyce's novel 'Ulysses', while the iconic Bewley's Café in Grafton Street is referenced in Joyce's collection of short stories called 'Dubliners'.

Answer: Lough Neagh

At 151 square miles, this freshwater lake is considerably bigger than the second biggest, Loch Lomond in Scotland, which is a mere 27 square miles. Counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Tyrone and Derry border the lough, with only Fermanagh - of the six counties in the North of Ireland - not having a boundary.

The lough is a major source of eels, which are exported as delicacies throughout continental Europe - although ironically they are not at all popular in Ireland itself!

Answer: Samson and Goliath

Goliath (96 metres high) was built in 1969 and Samson (106 metres high) in 1974. The Harland and Woolf shipyard - famous for building the ill-fated 'Titanic' - was once one of the biggest shipyards in the world, employing 35,000 at its peak. Nowadays, with a workforce of a few hundred, it is more likely to be repairing ships than building them, and manufacturing oil platforms, bridges and offshore wind farms.

Although still working cranes, Samson and Goliath are now listed as historic monuments.

In 2007, Samson struck and knocked over a 25-metre tower crane, leaving the smaller crane in pieces. Painters on a neighbouring crane filmed the incident on a mobile phone as the tower crane crashed towards them!

Answer: The Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry is 112 miles long and takes in not only some of Ireland's greatest scenery but much of its history - including Old Irish ogham stones (containing the early Celtic alphabet), the 'Liberator' Daniel O'Connell's house, Ireland's highest mountain - Carrauntuohill, and Valentia Island - where the first transatlantic telegraph cable arrived from America in 1858. Tourist coaches travel anti-clockwise around the Ring of Kerry, as narrow roads make it impossible for them to pass each other. Anecdotally, the first arrival of Sat Navs led to many coaches travelling clockwise during one summer season with predictably chaotic results!

Answer: Bogside

The slogan was painted in January 1969 on a house in the Catholic Bogside district. Between then and July 1972 the Bogside and adjoining Creggan districts were essentially no-go areas for the British army and RUC, patrolled instead by the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The Battle of the Bogside in August 1969, between local residents and the armed Royal Ulster Constabulary, is seen as having lit the touch paper that ignited over 25 years of 'the Troubles'. Nowadays, the house which the 'Free Derry' slogan was painted on is long demolished, but the gable wall itself remains - a permanent icon - with its famous slogan.

Answer: The Curragh

The 5,000 acres of the Curragh, as well as being home to Ireland's main flat racecourse, has had a long association with real military battles, being used many times in Ireland's history as a muster point for armies. The British army first built barracks there in 1855 as preparation for the Crimean War, which were taken over by the Irish government after British withdrawal in 1922, and which provide a camp for Irish Defence Forces today. In Irish mythology, the legendary warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill had a fortress on the nearby Hill of Allen and trained his warriors on the Curragh plain.

Answer: Old Head of Kinsale, Cork

The 'Lusitania' left New York on May 1st 1915 on its return journey to Liverpool and was approximately seven miles off the Old Head of Kinsale when it was struck by at least one torpedo fired from the German U-20 submarine. 1,198 people died in the attack, a huge proportion of the 1,959 on board. Only when I was researching this question did I realise that Sir Hugh Lane - London art dealer and founder of the first museum of modern art in the world, the Municipal Gallery in Dublin - was one of those who perished.