QuizList

John’s guide remains in place for this week while I prepare some other stuff. And details of a movies quiz follow which I was going to attend until I realised a) I have to go out on Monday and might not be up to two nights in a row of this nature b) the questions are possibly beyond me and Fletch (who had likewise volunteered). If we went, it would most likely be the case, in the words of my favourite movie, that ‘John Doe has the upper hand’: John Doe being any other team in the building.

I wonder if any quizzes on tomorrow will have a St Patrick’s Day flavour? Can’t think of any good Irish questions I heard recently. However, in the spirit of the day, here’s some trivia:

• The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) is Bertie Ahern. Bertie is short for ‘Batholomew’.
• The upper house of the Irish parliament is the Senate; the lower house is called the Dail.
• Dublin literally means ‘Black Pool’, perhaps a reference to the Liffey.
• The capital of Ireland before Dublin was Tara.
• Bono (Paul Hewson) called himself after Bono Vox, a hearing aid shop in Dublin’s O’Connell Street.
• The Irish national anthem is ‘A soldier’s song’.

That’s enough trivia -Ed.