136 Fun Facts About St. Patrick's Day

According to tradition, what was St. Patrick's birth name?

Tradition gives his birth name as Maewyn Succat; the seventh-century writer Tírechán listed four names for him, including Magonus and Succetus, while his own writings only ever call him Patricius.

According to legend, what did St. Patrick drive out of Ireland?

Post-glacial Ireland never had any snakes; the earliest account of Patrick chasing them into the sea is by Jocelyn of Furness in the late twelfth century.

On what date is St. Patrick's Day celebrated each year?

March 17 is the traditional date of Patrick's death; Ireland kept it as a religious feast for centuries, and the parades now tied to it began among the Irish in America.

What plant did St. Patrick allegedly use to explain the Holy Trinity?

Legend says Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Trinity; the story was first written down in 1726, though seventeenth-century Irish coins already show him holding one.

Which event shares a century with St. Patrick's mission to Ireland?

The fall of Rome in the West, in 476, shares the 400s with Patrick's mission; he was the son of a minor official under Roman rule and lived through the empire's last decades there.

What was St. Patrick's role during his years of captivity in Ireland?

Shepherd was his work for six years: Patrick wrote that he tended sheep every day and prayed up to a hundred times a day; tradition puts him at Slemish mountain, another theory near Killala Bay.

Where is St. Patrick believed to be buried?

Tradition places Patrick's grave at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down, which is also said to hold Saint Brigid and Saint Columba, though none of the burials has been proven.

Irish friar Luke Wadding got St Patrick's Day onto the Catholic calendar in the 1600s while working in which city?

Rome was Wadding's base: the Waterford-born Franciscan founded St Isidore's College there in 1625 to train priests for Ireland, and sat on the commission revising the Church's prayer book, which added the feast.

Which colour did the Order of St Patrick adopt in 1783, leaving a shade still named after the saint?

Blue was the Order of St Patrick's choice; green had been linked with Ireland since the Irish Catholic Confederation's 1640s flag, and the United Irishmen made 'wearing of the green' a nationalist statement in the 1790s.

The first recorded St. Patrick's Day celebration in what is now the US took place in which Spanish colonial city?

Records show St. Augustine, the Spanish colony in Florida, held a St. Patrick's celebration in 1600 organised by its Irish vicar Ricardo Artur, with a parade in 1601; Boston's first observance came in 1737.

Which city famously dyes its river green for St. Patrick's Day?

Chicago has dyed the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day since 1962. The tradition started when a plumber's union worker noticed that a chemical used to detect sewage leaks turned the river green.

Which dish, not traditional in Ireland, became the classic St. Patrick's Day meal among Irish Americans?

Corned beef and cabbage was adopted by Irish immigrants in nineteenth-century America, where beef was cheaper than at home; in Ireland itself the closer equivalent is bacon and cabbage.

Which Georgia city dyes its Forsyth Park fountain green for St. Patrick's Day?

Savannah stages one of the largest St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the United States; festivities open with the ceremonial 'greening' of the fountain in Forsyth Park.

In Irish folklore, where is a leprechaun said to hide his pot of gold?

At the end of a rainbow is the usual hiding place, a late addition to the legend that suits a hoarder well, since a rainbow's end can never be reached.

Tourism Ireland's 'Global Greening' began in 2010 by lighting which Australian landmark green for St. Patrick's Day?

The Sydney Opera House and Auckland's Sky Tower were the first two landmarks lit green for Tourism Ireland's Global Greening in 2010; hundreds of sites worldwide later joined.

By American St. Patrick's Day custom, what happens to anyone caught not wearing green?

You get pinched: in Irish American folklore, wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns, who pinch anyone they can see.

Which famous Irish writer wrote 'Ulysses' and 'Dubliners'?

James Joyce's Ulysses unfolds on a single day in Dublin, June 16, 1904, and is considered one of the most important novels of the 20th century.

What is the name of the traditional Irish step dance show that became a global sensation in 1994?

Riverdance began as the interval act of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, starring Jean Butler and Michael Flatley with music by Bill Whelan, before growing into a full-length touring show.

In which Irish county is Croagh Patrick, climbed by pilgrims every 'Reek Sunday'?

Mayo's Croagh Patrick rises above Clew Bay; Patrick is said to have fasted forty days on its summit, so thousands climb it each Reek Sunday, the last Sunday in July, some of them barefoot.

What is the longest river in Ireland?

The River Shannon rises at the Shannon Pot in County Cavan and meets the Atlantic below Limerick; for centuries it has divided the west of Ireland from the east and south.

Bulmers, made in Clonmel and sold abroad as Magners, is which kind of drink?

Cider is the answer: Clonmel's Bulmers goes by Magners abroad because the English firm H. P. Bulmer kept the international rights to the Bulmers name.

What is the name of the famous prehistoric passage tomb in Ireland, older than the Egyptian pyramids?

Newgrange in County Meath is more than 5,000 years old, older than the Giza pyramids; its passage is aligned so the rising winter-solstice sun shines through a 'roofbox' and floods the inner chamber.

Which Irish beer brand is famous for its dark stout and is brewed at St. James's Gate in Dublin?

Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease on the disused brewery on 31 December 1759, at a rent of £45 a year.

In one tradition, a four-leaf clover's leaves stand for faith, love, luck and what?

Hope completes the set, and the luck is in the finding: the plant normally grows three leaves, and a fourth is a rare mutation.

Kissing which famous Irish landmark is said to grant the 'gift of the gab'?

The Blarney Stone is set in the battlements of Blarney Castle near Cork; to kiss it, visitors climb to the top and lean over backwards on the parapet's edge.

Which rocky islands off Ireland's west coast doubled as Ahch-To in two Star Wars films?

The Skellig Islands' larger rock, Skellig Michael, played Luke Skywalker's hideaway; its protected puffins could not be cleared from the shots, so the filmmakers turned them into porgs.

In which country's 2006 census did 14% of respondents report Irish origin?

Canada's 2006 census recorded about 4.35 million people of Irish origin, 14% of the population; by comparison Australia's 2011 census put Irish ancestry at 10.4%.

Which leavener reacts with buttermilk to make Irish quick bread rise without yeast?

Baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) is the leavener: the basic recipe is just flour, salt, buttermilk and soda, and the buttermilk's lactic acid reacts with it to form carbon dioxide bubbles.

Which 1916 Dublin rebellion came six years before the Irish Free State?

The Easter Rising was put down within a week and had little public support, but the execution of its leaders turned them into martyrs and swung opinion towards independence.

What was the Great Famine in Ireland primarily caused by?

Potato blight (Phytophthora infestans) rotted the crop much of Ireland lived on from 1845; about a million people died, and death and emigration cut the population by roughly a quarter.

Which Irish word names a social evening of traditional music and group dancing?

A ceili (céilí) at first meant simply a social visit, with neighbours trading songs, stories and poems; the group dancing now tied to the word took over later.

Which province of Ireland includes Dublin?

Leinster covers Ireland's east and includes Dublin; the Irish word for a province, cúige, means 'a fifth part', a relic of times when Meath was counted as a fifth province.

What is the Claddagh ring, a famous Irish symbol, traditionally used for?

Love and friendship, joined by loyalty, are what the ring stands for: the heart is love, the crown loyalty and the clasped hands friendship; the design comes from Claddagh in County Galway.

Which ancient Gaelic festival, beginning on the evening of 31 October, helped shape modern Halloween?

Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter, the 'darker half' of the year; many American Halloween customs were carried over by Irish and Scottish immigrants.

What famous Irish rock band released 'The Joshua Tree' and 'Achtung Baby'?

U2 began in Dublin in 1976 when 14-year-old Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a note to his school noticeboard looking for bandmates; The Joshua Tree followed in 1987 and Achtung Baby in 1991.

Which Dublin-born author wrote the 1897 vampire novel Dracula?

Bram Stoker, born in Clontarf, Dublin, wrote Dracula while managing London's Lyceum Theatre for the actor Henry Irving; he never visited Eastern Europe, where the novel opens.

What does the Irish phrase 'Erin go Bragh' mean in English?

'Ireland forever' is the usual rendering of an Irish phrase that literally runs 'Ireland until the end of time'; the United Irishmen took it up as a slogan in the 1790s.

In 1952 the Irish ambassador began a tradition by sending a box of shamrocks to which US president?

Ambassador John Hearne sent the first box of shamrocks to Harry Truman in 1952; the custom grew into the Taoiseach presenting the president with a Waterford Crystal bowl of shamrocks each March.

What instrument appears on Ireland's coat of arms, its euro coins and its passports?

The harp on Ireland's arms is modelled on the medieval 'Brian Boru' harp kept in Dublin; the state's harp faces left, the mirror image of the right-facing one a famous brewery trademarked in 1876.

Which 179-km circular tourist route loops around the Iveragh Peninsula in south-western Ireland?

The Ring of Kerry's roads are so narrow that tour coaches all drive it anticlockwise, since two can barely pass.

What natural geological formation of interlocking basalt columns is found in Northern Ireland?

The Giant's Causeway's roughly 40,000 columns in County Antrim came from an ancient volcanic fissure eruption; legend says the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill built it to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner.

Which Irish dish combines mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale?

Colcannon was a Halloween dish in much of Ireland, served with a ring hidden inside: whoever found it in their helping was said to marry soon.

Which actress starred opposite John Wayne in 'The Quiet Man'?

Maureen O'Hara, John Wayne and director John Ford made the Western Rio Grande for Republic Pictures first; only then did the studio, known for low-budget B-movies, back The Quiet Man.

Six of Ireland's 32 counties form Northern Ireland, whose capital is which city?

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, whose six counties stayed in the United Kingdom in 1922 while the other 26 became the Irish Free State.

Which sport draws the biggest crowds in Ireland, about a third of all attendance in a 2003 study?

Gaelic football took 34% of all sports attendance in the Republic in that 2003 study; players may carry the ball, but must bounce it or 'solo' it off the foot as they run.

Ireland's cream-coloured, cable-knit fisherman's sweater is named after which place?

The Aran Islands named the sweater, but it is no ancient craft: islanders devised it in the early 1900s, adapting the jerseys of visiting fishermen sent to improve the local fishing.

Which Ballymena-born actor played Oskar Schindler and the title role in Michael Collins?

Liam Neeson won the Schindler role after Steven Spielberg saw him on Broadway in Anna Christie; the part brought him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

St Patrick's Day always falls inside which season of the Christian calendar?

Lent always includes the feast, and its bans on meat were traditionally waived for the day; when it fell in Holy Week in 2008, the Church moved the religious feast two days earlier.

Which parliament made St Patrick's Day a public holiday in Ireland in 1903?

The UK Parliament passed the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, brought in by the Irish MP James O'Mara, because Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom with no parliament of its own.

Who set up Dublin's St. Patrick's Festival in the 1990s?

The government set up the festival to draw tourists and show off Irish culture to the world; the first, in 1996, filled a single day, and it later grew to five.

Besides Ireland, St. Patrick is a patron saint of which West African country?

Irish missionaries spread Catholicism in Nigeria from the late nineteenth century, and the Church lists St. Patrick among Nigeria's patron saints; he is also the patron of engineers.

What does seamróg, the Irish word behind 'shamrock', literally mean?

Young clover is the literal sense: seamróg is the diminutive of seamair, 'clover'; Elizabethan writers thought the Irish ate it, perhaps confusing the word with seamsóg, wood sorrel.

Besides Ireland, on which Caribbean island is St. Patrick's Day a public holiday?

Montserrat, a small island in the Caribbean, also observes St. Patrick's Day as a public holiday, due to its historical Irish population.

In Irish traditional music, the violin is almost always called by what name?

Fiddle players across Ireland took their cue from an emigrant: Sligo-born Michael Coleman's 1920s New York records were in demand back home and shaped Irish fiddling for generations.

In his Letter, Patrick excommunicated the soldiers of Coroticus for doing what?

Patrick's Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus condemns a British warband for raiding Ireland, killing some Christians and enslaving his newly baptised converts; he declares the raiders excommunicated until they repent.

According to legend, what did Patrick light on the Hill of Slane, defying King Laoghaire?

Muirchú's seventh-century Life says Patrick lit an Easter fire on the Hill of Slane before the king's own fire at Tara, defying King Laoghaire's ban and announcing his mission.

Which British monarch founded the Order of St Patrick in 1783?

George III founded the Order of St Patrick in 1783, a year after Ireland's parliament won wide autonomy, as a way to reward or win political support there; it matched England's Garter.

Irishmen serving in which army staged New York's first St Patrick's Day parade?

The British Army's Irish soldiers marched through colonial New York on St Patrick's Day in the 1760s, before American independence, and the city's parade traces itself to them.

The powder that turns a US city's river green each March starts out which colour?

The dye is an orange powder that turns bright green on contact with the water; a plumbers' union crew sprinkles it from small boats on the morning of the city's parade.

Which NHL team was known as the St. Patricks and wore green jerseys from 1919 to 1927?

The Toronto Maple Leafs played as the Toronto St. Patricks in green from 1919 until Conn Smythe's group bought the club in 1927; the team has worn green St. Pats throwbacks in later years.

In Patrick's dream, 'The Voice of the Irish' begged him to do what?

Come back to Ireland was the plea: Patrick wrote that a man named Victoricus handed him a letter with that heading, and he seemed to hear voices by the western sea calling him to walk among them again.

Which Irish Catholic brotherhood, named with the Roman word for Ireland, was founded in New York City in 1836?

The Ancient Order of Hibernians was founded in New York City in 1836 to defend Irish Catholic immigrants and their churches, and for generations it organised the city's St. Patrick's Day parade.

In which Ulster town did Patrick traditionally found his principal church?

Armagh is where tradition says Patrick founded his principal church; the city became Ireland's ecclesiastical capital, seat of both the Catholic and the Church of Ireland Archbishops of Armagh.

The Irish pancake called boxty is made mainly from which ingredient?

Potato is the heart of boxty, and an old rhyme raises the stakes: anyone who can't make boxty, it warns, will never get a man.

Sean-nós, the 'old style' of Irish-language song, is traditionally performed in which way?

Solo, with no instruments: a sean-nós singer stretches each line with ornaments of his or her own, and the 'old style' label itself was coined only in the 1940s, at the Gaelic League's festival.

In 2011 astronaut Catherine Coleman played a flute and a tin whistle in orbit, borrowed from members of which Irish band?

The Chieftains' Matt Molloy supplied the flute and Paddy Moloney the tin whistle; her playing from the space station later appeared as 'The Chieftains in Orbit' on the band's 2012 album Voice of Ages.

Which small hexagonal squeezebox, with buttons on both ends, is a staple of Irish traditional sessions?

The concertina's popularity collapsed in the early 20th century as the accordion took over, yet it held its place in Irish traditional music.

Dripsey's 'world's shortest' St Patrick's Day parade ran between two what?

Pubs: the Cork village's two stood about 25 yards apart, and the parade ran from one to the other each year from 1999 until one of them closed.

What is the name of the ancient Celtic writing system sometimes seen in Irish art and monuments?

Ogham is an early medieval alphabet, used from about the 4th century to write Primitive Irish, its strokes carved along the edges of standing stones in Ireland and western Britain.

The uilleann pipes, Ireland's national bagpipe, take their name from the Irish word for which body part?

Uilleann means 'of the elbow': the bag is filled by a bellows worked under the player's elbow rather than by blowing, so some pipers can sing or chat while playing.

What name does Irish folklore give to its fish-tailed sea-women?

A merrow is said to need a magic cap, the cohuleen druith, to pass between the deep sea and dry land; if it is stolen, she cannot go back under the waves.

What famous illuminated manuscript is housed in Trinity College Dublin?

The Book of Kells is thought to be the 'great Gospel' the annals say was stolen from Kells in 1007 and found months later under a sod, stripped of its gold.

Which Gaelic team sport is played with a small ball called a sliotar?

Hurling is an outdoor Gaelic team game of ancient origin, played with a wooden stick called a hurley; a good strike can send the sliotar over 150 km/h, and the women's version is camogie.

The Irish drinking toast 'Sláinte!' literally means what?

The proper reply is 'sláinte agatsa', roughly 'to your health as well'.

Which spirit of Irish folklore is said to wail at night to foretell a death?

The banshee, from the Irish bean sí ('woman of the fairy mound'), is a female spirit whose keening wail is said to foretell a death, traditionally in the old Gaelic families.

Which Irish highwayman song was a 1973 hit for Thin Lizzy and later covered by Metallica?

'Whiskey in the Jar' was a signature song of the Dubliners in the 1960s before Thin Lizzy's 1973 hit and Metallica's 1998 cover; its plot resembles a broadside ballad about highwayman Patrick Fleming, executed in 1650.

What is the name for the traditional Irish drum, played with a stick called a 'tipper'?

The bodhrán is a newcomer to Irish music sessions: it was long a noisemaker for wren boys and mummers, until the composer Seán Ó Riada championed it as Ireland's native drum.

Which county just south of Dublin is known as the 'Garden of Ireland'?

Wicklow earned the nickname for its mountains, wooded glens and grand estate gardens such as Powerscourt, all a short drive from Dublin.

What trade are leprechauns traditionally said to practise in Irish folklore?

Shoemaking is the leprechaun's trade: he is usually pictured hammering away at a single shoe, never a pair.

Before the 20th century, what colour was a leprechaun generally said to wear?

Red coats and cocked hats were how Yeats and other 19th-century writers described leprechauns; the all-green outfit is a modern popularisation.

The Old Irish root of the word leprechaun, luchorpán, is usually taken to mean what?

Luchorpán is usually read as lú plus corp, 'small body'; a rival theory derives it from the Roman Luperci. Leprechaun-like beings barely appear in early Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore.

In the earliest leprechaun tale, Echtra Fergus mac Léti, what does King Fergus get for freeing the creatures?

In the medieval Echtra Fergus mac Léti, Fergus seizes the lúchorpáin who tried to drag him into the sea and frees them for three wishes, one of them the power to breathe under water.

W. B. Yeats put the leprechaun in which category of Irish supernatural being?

Solitary fairy was Yeats's class for the leprechaun: his 1888 collection split Irish fairies into trooping ones, who live in bands, and solitary ones, who keep to themselves.

In folklore, what happens if you take your eyes off a captured leprechaun?

Folklore holds that once its captor looks away, it vanishes: the leprechaun escapes before handing over its gold, so keeping your eyes fixed on it is the only way to hold it.

Which cousin of the leprechaun in Irish folklore is said to be perpetually drunk?

The clurichaun, which some, Yeats noted, take for a leprechaun on a spree, is said to haunt wine cellars and drink the stock.

Which Canadian city has held a St. Patrick's Day parade since 1824?

Montreal's parade dates from 1824, and Irish soldiers of the city's garrison were already marking the day there in 1759.

Which product did Irish law ban from sale on St. Patrick's Day, of all days, for over 30 years from 1927?

Alcohol sales were banned in the Irish state on its own national holiday for more than three decades, though the ban never applied in Northern Ireland.

Which trade's union sponsors an Illinois river's St. Patrick's Day dyeing and guards the dye recipe?

Plumbers of Local 130 keep the formula to themselves. The dyeing began in 1962, and since 1966 the dye has been vegetable-based so that it adds no pollutants.

Which fast-food chain sells the green, mint-flavoured Shamrock Shake around St. Patrick's Day each year?

McDonald's put Shamrock Shake sales toward the first Ronald McDonald House, founded after a Philadelphia Eagles player's daughter was treated for leukemia.

Which Manhattan thoroughfare does New York's St. Patrick's Day parade march up, from 44th to 79th Street?

Fifth Avenue sees a five-hour procession that is always led by the 69th Infantry Regiment, whose commander is asked each year whether the 69th is ready.

In which animated sitcom does a boy getting drunk at a St. Patrick's Day parade bring back Prohibition?

The Simpsons has Homer turn bootlegger as the 'Beer Baron', rolling drink to Moe's speakeasy inside bowling balls.

Which future Friends star had a first major film role in the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun?

Jennifer Aniston played a spoiled teenager pursued by Warwick Davis's vengeful title character, a part she has admitted to finding embarrassing.

St. Patrick's Day falls on the traditional anniversary of which event in the saint's own life?

His death, placed by tradition around the year 461, fixed the date of a feast now celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.

St. Patrick is honoured as a saint worldwide despite which surprising gap in his official Church record?

He was never canonised by a pope because, for most of Christianity's first thousand years, saints were proclaimed at diocesan or regional level rather than by Rome.

Which General Mills cereal with an Irish sprite for a mascot was the first to include marshmallows?

Lucky Charms calls its marshmallow pieces 'marbits', and in 1975 its mascot was briefly replaced in New England by Waldo the Wizard.

Which Indiana university's sports teams have officially been nicknamed the Fighting Irish since 1927?

Notre Dame went by looser names such as the Ramblers and the Rovers in the Knute Rockne era before the nickname became official.

Which city's Charitable Irish Society held the Thirteen Colonies' first St. Patrick's Day observance, in 1737?

Boston's first observance was a church service and dinner held by Protestant Irish immigrants to honour their homeland, not a Catholic feast or a parade.

Which general gave the Continental Army a holiday on St. Patrick's Day 1780 while camped at Morristown?

George Washington called it an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence, and many of the soldiers under his command were Irish.

Which Irish ballad did astronaut Chris Hadfield record himself singing in orbit for St. Patrick's Day 2013?

Danny Boy got its words from an English lawyer, Frederic Weatherly, who wrote them in Bath in 1910 and only later fitted them to the Londonderry Air.

Which song in tribute to a romanticised Ireland, published in 1912, did Chauncey Olcott sing in The Isle O' Dreams?

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling has words by Olcott and George Graff Jr. and music by Ernest Ball, written when such tributes were popular on both sides of the Atlantic.

In which 1993 thriller does Harrison Ford's Dr. Richard Kimble lose a US marshal in a St. Patrick's Day parade?

The Fugitive shot the chase during the city's real 1993 parade, and the mayor can be glimpsed among the marchers.

Which future James Bond sings a duet in Disney's 1959 Irish fantasy Darby O'Gill and the Little People?

Sean Connery was on loan from 20th Century Fox for his first leading role, and the duet, 'Pretty Irish Girl', was released as a single in the UK.

Which US president visited his ancestors' cottage at Dunganstown, County Wexford, on a four-day trip to Ireland?

John F. Kennedy made the trip in June 1963, became the first foreign leader to address the Irish parliament, and told aides it was the best four days of his life.

Which US president traced a great-great-great-grandfather to the Irish village of Moneygall and visited it in office?

Barack Obama descends through his mother from Falmouth Kearney, who left Moneygall for New York in 1850 aged 19. The village now has an Obama Plaza.

Which shortened name for St. Patrick's Day follows Pádraig, the Irish form of the saint's name?

St. Paddy's Day is the form used in Ireland, where the rival spelling grates because Patty is a shortening of the feminine name Patricia.

Which nickname for Ireland first appeared in William Drennan's 1795 poem 'When Erin First Rose'?

The Emerald Isle caught on from a poem that stresses how much the colour green had long meant to the Irish.

In which Southern US city do St. Patrick's Day float riders throw onions and carrots for stew to the crowd?

New Orleans borrows from Mardi Gras: some floats are reused from Carnival parades, and beads and trinkets fly along with the vegetables.

Which MLB team became the first to wear St. Patrick's Day uniforms, at spring training in 1978?

The Cincinnati Reds set a trend: in 1981 Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw dyed his own uniform green the night before the holiday game.

Missouri S&T's ten-day build-up to St. Patrick's Day honours the saint as patron of which profession?

Engineers get a downtown parade in Rolla on the Saturday before the holiday, at a college once known as the Missouri School of Mines.

Which English jump-racing meeting usually coincides with St. Patrick's Day and draws large Irish crowds?

The Cheltenham Festival has prize money second only to the Grand National in British jump racing, and its Grade I races include the Gold Cup.

Which Dublin stadium long hosted the All-Ireland club finals on St. Patrick's Day, before a move to January?

Croke Park, the headquarters of the GAA, is named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, one of the association's first patrons.

In which sport did Ireland clinch a Grand Slam by beating England at Twickenham on St. Patrick's Day 2018?

Rugby union's Six Nations ended that day with a 24–15 Irish win, only the third clean sweep in the team's history.

Which dog breed has since 1902 been mascot of the British Army regiment given shamrock each St. Patrick's Day?

An Irish wolfhound was first presented by a breed club hoping the publicity would make the dogs more popular, and that first mascot was called Brian Boru.

For which country did the Saint Patrick's Battalion, led by Irishman John Riley, fight the United States?

Mexico's battalion drew in many men who had deserted the US Army, and it fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, Churubusco among them.

Which woman, one of Ireland's three national saints alongside Patrick, gained an Irish public holiday in 2023?

Brigid of Kildare is also patroness of poets, healers, blacksmiths and dairy workers, and her 1 February feast began as Imbolc, a festival of spring.

Which satirist was dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin for over 30 years and is buried there?

Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels, was nicknamed 'Dean Swift'; Queen Anne made it clear she would have blocked the appointment if she could.

Which five-line comic verse form, popularised by Edward Lear, shares its name with an Irish city and county?

Limerick may owe its name to a parlour game of nonsense verse whose refrain asked, 'Will you come up to Limerick?'

Which American star, born to Irish emigrant parents, created the arena dance show Lord of the Dance?

Michael Flatley once held the world record for tap dancing 35 times per second, and his legs were reportedly insured for £25 million.

Which Irish word for 'chief' has been the official title of Ireland's prime minister since the 1937 constitution?

Taoiseach is the title in English as well as Irish, and it is never used for other countries' prime ministers, who get the generic term príomh-aire.

Which Washington landmark began dyeing its public fountains green for St. Patrick's Day in 2009?

The White House took its cue from the river dyeing that a Midwestern city has staged for the holiday since 1962.

Which Irish word for fun, gossip and lively talk was in fact borrowed from Scots and northern English?

Craic began as the Scots and northern English 'crack', entered Irish only in the mid-20th century, and the Gaelic spelling was then borrowed back into English.

Which English word meaning 'in abundance' was borrowed from an Irish phrase meaning 'enough'?

Galore comes from the Irish 'go leor' and has been in English since the 1670s; Scottish Gaelic has a matching phrase, 'gu leóir'.

Which English word for organised shunning was coined during the Irish Land League's campaign of 1880?

Boycott was Captain Charles Boycott, agent for the absentee landlord Lord Erne, and within months The Times was using his name for organised isolation.

The Dublin ballad 'Molly Malone', the city's unofficial anthem, is also known by which shellfish seller's cry?

Cockles and Mussels is the song's other title, and a statue of Molly has stood in central Dublin since the city's 1988 millennium celebrations.

In Irish surnames such as O'Brien and O'Neill, the prefix O' comes from a Gaelic word meaning what?

Descendant is the sense of Ó, while Mac means son. A woman's surname traditionally swaps Ó for Ní, a reduction of the phrase for 'descendant's daughter'.

Which common Irish surname gives its name to an intense, pure shade of green linked with St. Patrick's Day?

Kelly green borrows one of Ireland's most widespread family names and is meant to evoke the island's lush meadows.

Which name for Ireland in its own native tongue appears on Irish postage stamps and all Irish coins?

Éire is declared the name of the state in the 1937 constitution, and it shares the cover of Irish passports with the English name.

Which stout walking stick and cudgel of Irish folklore is traditionally cut from knotty blackthorn?

Shillelagh sticks were made of oak too, until oak grew scarce in Ireland and the name came to mean a blackthorn stick.

Which crooner revived 'Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's an Irish Lullaby)' by singing it in the film Going My Way?

Bing Crosby's single sold over a million copies and reached number four on the Billboard chart, three decades after the song was written for a Tin Pan Alley musical.

Which Irish teenager was the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island when it opened in 1892?

Annie Moore was handed a $10 gold piece by an American official, and bronze statues of her now stand at Cobh in Ireland and on Ellis Island.

Which South American capital throws its St. Patrick's Day party on Reconquista, a downtown street of Irish pubs?

Buenos Aires drew some 50,000 people to the street and its nearby pubs for the party in 2006.

Which society of the 1790s adopted the colour green and launched a rebellion against British rule in 1798?

The United Irishmen inspired the song 'The Wearing of the Green', which tells of members being persecuted for wearing the colour.

Which US state's city of New London renames itself New Dublin for a week of St. Patrick's Day festivities?

Wisconsin's largest parade for the holiday is held there, alongside an Irish Fest that fills the renamed week.

Which holiday on the day after St. Patrick's Day honours a woman said to be the saint's wife or mother?

Sheelah's Day is no longer officially marked in Ireland but lives on in Newfoundland, where Irish immigrants arrived in the late 1600s.

St. Patrick's Day's church observance was moved two days early in 2008 to avoid clashing with what?

Holy Week outranks saints' feasts in the church calendar, so the day was also shifted in 1940, and the clash will not recur until 2160.

The name Patrick comes from the Latin Patricius, which marked out which rank in ancient Roman society?

Nobleman is the sense, since Patricius literally means 'a patrician'. A seventh-century Irish writer glossed the saint's name as 'father of the citizens'.