Irish Literature and Folklore Quiz: Answers

Question 1:
Correct answer: Dublin, his birthplace and the setting of Ulysses
Joyce had a love/hate relationship with Dublin.

Question 2:
Correct answer: A wailing woman spirit indicating that death is coming
A banshee is a keening female spirit. The term comes from the Gaelic sidhe, pronounced she, which is a race of fairies.

Question 3:
Correct answer: John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World
Synge's Playboy (1907) created an uproar because of its so-called scandalous language as well as its subject matter, which was thought to present the God-fearing Irish in a less-than-virtuous light. The Belfast Morning News reported: "A torrent of execration has been the nightly reward of the actors who strive to represent a murderer, an idiot, some vulgar, shameless, unnatural viragoes with the souls and tongues of strumpets, and a medley of drunken mindless brutes, as typical peasants of the Gaelic County of Mayo. . . " A "playboy" in this context means an adventurer or hero.

Question 4:
Correct answer: Cuchulain
Cuchulain (pronounced koo-HUL-an), featured in the Ulster cycle, single-handedly (though he did have seven fingers on each hand) defended Ulster from Queen Maeve and the warriors of Connaught. Lady Gregory, Yeats, and Thomas Kinsella, among others, featured Cuchulain in their works. (A Toaiseach is the name of an Irish prime minister.)

Question 5:
Correct answer: Seals who shed their skins at night and are transformed into beautiful men and women
Silkies, related to mermaids, are seal people, and were featured in John Sayles's film, "The Secret of Roan Inish."

Question 6:
Correct answer: The Irish (Gaelic) speaking parts of Ireland, most of which are on the western coast
The Gaeltacht is the native Irish-speaking portion of the island. The Irish Language nearly died out after the potato famine and consequent emigration. Although its study is required in school, only in some western portions of the country-the Gaeltacht--is it commonly spoken at home.

Question 7:
Correct answer: Flattery
Kissing the Blarney stone imbues a person with the gift of flattery, although some people write this off as a bunch of blarney.

Question 8:
Correct answer: Orkney Islands
The Orkney Islands are Scottish. The Aran Islands are the setting of many of Synges's plays and the tiny Blasket Islands have produced several Irish writers. Both are part of the Gaeltacht (see #6). The rocky, remote Skellig Islands are the home of a famous medieval monastery dating back to the 7th century.

Question 9:
Correct answer: W. B. Yeats
In addition to becoming one of the 20th century's greatest poets, Yeats was also an Irish senator (1922-1928), and his image appears on the Irish twenty-pound note.

Question 10:
Correct answer: Leprechauns are tiny, wizened old men and women fairies
Being a leprechaun is strictly a male profession.

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