'Tis Irish, To Be Sure! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sigmund Freud

And perhaps to back up Sigmund Freud's comment on the Irish is the following, an "Irishman's Philosophy of Life". "In life, there are only two things to worry about, either you are well, or you are sick. If you are well, there is nothing to worry about, but if you are sick, you have two things to worry about; either you will live, or you will die. If you live, there is nothing to worry about, if you die, you have two things to worry about; either you will go to heaven or to hell. If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about, but if you go to hell, you'll be so busy shaking hands with your friends, you won't have time to worry!"

Answer: Hugh Leonard

Hugh Leonard, aka John Keyes Byrne, was born in 1926 and raised in County Dublin. A playwright, he wrote more than thirty plays, along with many stories and series for television. As an actor he appeared in the film adaptation of his own play 'Da' and also his own novel 'Home Before Night' in 1988 (as a pallbearer).

Answer: John Locke

Englishman John Locke was born in 1632 and died in 1704. He studied, amongst other things, philosophy, Greek, chemistry, meteorology and theology at Oxford and became a personal physician. This quote is from the poem, "The Exile's Return". Some other Locke quotes include; "Reading furnishes the mind only with materials for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours"; and, "The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves."

Answer: Charles Haughey

Charles Haughey was born in September 1925 in County Mayo. An Irish politician, he rose through the ranks to become Prime Minister in 1979 (to 1981), then again in 1982, and again from 1987 until 1992. Also quoted as saying, "Deep down I'm a very shallow person"; and, "Ireland is where strange tales begin and happy endings are possible."

Answer: Irish Times

The "Irish Times" is responsible for these classic headlines!

Answer: Reverend Ian Paisley

The Reverend Ian Paisley is probably best described as a man of contradictions. He has been described as follows; "... a Christian minister who incites religious hatred and threatens bloody civil war. He is a constitutional politician who leads coat trailing, sectarian street protests.

He claims to believe in democracy yet runs his church like a Protestant pope and his party like a medieval despot."

Answer: George Bernard Shaw

Born in 1856 and dying in 1950, George Bernard Shaw was an Irish essayist, lecturer, novelist, philosopher, playwright, political activist and revolutionary evolutionist. Some other quotes from Shaw include; "Find enough clever things to say, and you're a Prime Minister; write them down and you're a Shakespeare"; "The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business"; "England and America are two countries divided by a common language"; and, "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing!"

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and died in 1900. An Irish poet and dramatist, he wrote some of the wittiest and most elegant dramas including 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and wrote a novel, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. Some other quotes attributed to Wilde; "Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same"; "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months"; "I love acting.

It is so much more real than life"; and, "It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out."

Answer: Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan, born in 1923 and died in 1964, was an Irish dramatist and author who captured the spirit of the Irish in his humourous writings. Some other Behan quotes include; "I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse"; "I was court-martialed in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence"; and, "Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves."

Answer: William Butler Yeats

Born in 1865 and dying in 1939, William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist who founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and won the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature. Some more quotes attributed to Yeats include; "Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people"; and, "Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing."