Irish Literature and Folklore Quiz

Question 1: What did James Joyce refer to as the "center of paralysis?"

1. The Catholic Church, which figures prominently in A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
2. Dublin, his birthplace and the setting of Ulysses
3. Shakespeare & Co., Sylvia's Beach's Parisian bookstore, which first published Ulysses
4. The Berlitz School in Trieste where Joyce taught

1. A female leprechaun who can change form at will and who often plays a tin whistle
2. The Irish equivalent of a goblin, originating in Celtic mythology
3. A wailing woman spirit indicating that death is coming
4. A phantom said to carouse with witches and haunt the Irish countryside during the twilight

1. John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World
2. Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
3. Oscar Wilde's Salome
4. Sean O'Casey's Shadow of a Gunman

1. Cuchulain
2. Finnegan
3. Darby O'Gill
4. Taoiseach

1. Creatures said to have been responsible for the Irish potato famine
2. Seals who shed their skins at night and are transformed into beautiful men and women
3. Irish wildflowers fancied by the leprechauns
4. A soft, longish moss clinging to holy wells

1. A seedy neighborhood in Dublin, on the wrong side of the Liffey.
2. Rocky islands off the coast of Kerry, once inhabited by Irish monks.
3. A contemporary Irish literary movement promoting literature in Irish (Gaelic)
4. The Irish (Gaelic) speaking parts of Ireland, most of which are on the western coast

1. Confidence
2. Flattery
3. The luck of the Irish
4. Ability to detect truth from fiction

1. Orkney Islands
2. Skellig Islands
3. Blasket Islands
4. Aran Islands

1. James Joyce
2. Samuel Beckett
3. Sean O'Casey
4. W. B. Yeats

1. Leprechauns are cobblers.
2. Leprechauns are tiny, wizened old men and women fairies.
3. Leprechauns bury a crock of gold at the end of a rainbow.
4. If caught, leprechauns are compelled to reveal the location of their horde of gold.

Answers to the quiz

Provided by Infoplease.com.