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50 free Dublin trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Dublin's Irish name means 'town of the hurdled ford' and its English name means 'black pool', and both places still exist under the modern city. This quiz starts there, with the Vikings of 841, Strongbow and Henry II, Dublin Castle and the Pale, Elizabeth I's Protestant college, and the Georgian boom that briefly made Dublin the second city of the British Empire. It goes on through Arthur Guinness's 9,000-year lease, the Easter Rising and Kilmainham Gaol, Bloody Sunday at Croke Park and the handover of the Castle to Michael Collins. Then it walks the city: the Liffey and its Northside-Southside divide, the Ha'penny Bridge and its toll, Phoenix Park's deer and Papal Cross, the Spire on the spot where Nelson's Pillar was blown up, Trinity's Old Library and the Book of Kells, Swift's cathedral, Temple Bar, Grafton Street and Molly Malone. Culture questions cover Handel's Messiah, four Nobel laureates, Bloomsday, U2 and the Dubliners, and modern Dublin's Silicon Docks and record-breaking airport. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Dublin and its landmarks and events, and each question shows the sentence that supports it. Try our Ireland and Irish Culture quiz for the rest of the island.
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Q 01The name Dublin comes from the Irish Dubhlinn, meaning what?
Black pool
Dubhlinn means 'black pool', the dark tidal pool where the River Poddle met the Liffey behind today's Dublin Castle; the castle's Dubh Linn Garden now covers the spot.
Q 02What does Baile Atha Cliath, the Irish name for Dublin, mean?
Town of the hurdled ford
Baile Átha Cliath means 'town of the hurdled ford', a wattle crossing of the Liffey near today's Father Mathew Bridge; in speech it is often shortened to Bleá Cliath.
Q 03On which river does Dublin stand?
The Liffey
The River Liffey divides Dublin into the Northside and Southside and reaches the sea at Dublin Bay; the Viking town grew on its south bank.
Q 04The Vikings established a fortified base at Dublin in roughly which year?
841
Vikings set up a longphort, a fortified ship camp, at Dublin in 841; the town stayed largely Norse until the Normans took it in 1170, and the slave trade drove much of its early wealth.
Q 05Which founding year did Dublin's official millennium celebrations commemorate?
988
Dublin chose 988, the year High King Máel Sechnaill forced tribute from the Norse town, as its founding date; the 1988 millennium festivities included unveiling the Molly Malone statue.
Q 06Ptolemy's map of about 140 AD marks a settlement near Dublin under what name?
Eblana
Ptolemy's Geography of about 140 AD records a settlement called Eblana, often identified with Dublin; fish traps found under the Convention Centre show people on the bay some 6,000 years ago.
Q 07Which Norman lord, enlisted by the exiled King of Leinster, seized Dublin in 1170?
Strongbow
Strongbow, Richard de Clare, took Dublin in 1170 for the exiled Diarmait Mac Murchada and claimed Leinster on his death; Henry II arrived in 1171 to rein in his vassal and styled himself Lord of Ireland.
Q 08Dublin Castle was founded in 1204 on the orders of which English monarch?
John
King John ordered the castle built in 1204 to hold the city's treasure and defend it; it remained the seat of British rule until handed to Michael Collins's provisional government in January 1922.
Q 09Dublin was the heart of which strip of English-controlled territory in medieval Ireland?
The Pale
The phrase 'beyond the pale' comes from the lands outside it; Robert the Bruce tried and failed to take the city in 1317.
Q 10Which monarch founded Trinity College in 1592 as a Protestant university?
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I granted Trinity College its charter in 1592 as a Protestant university, Ireland's oldest; its College Historical Society, dating to 1770, claims to be the world's oldest student society.
Q 11In the Georgian 18th century, Dublin briefly ranked as what?
Second-largest city of the British Empire
Dublin was briefly the second-largest city of the British Empire after London, and fifth-largest in Europe, with over 130,000 people; the Wide Streets Commission of 1757 shaped its layout.
Q 12Arthur Guinness's 1759 lease on the St James's Gate brewery ran for how long?
9,000 years
The rent was 45 pounds a year; the company has since bought the land outright.
Q 13At the top of the Guinness Storehouse, visitors drink their pint in which bar?
The Gravity Bar
Q 21Croke Park is named after Thomas Croke, who held which office?
Archbishop of Cashel
Croke Park honours Thomas Croke, Archbishop of Cashel from 1875 to 1902 and the first patron of the Gaelic Athletic Association, which bought the Jones's Road ground in 1913.
Q 22Where do both houses of the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas, meet?
Leinster House
Leinster House on Kildare Street, built for the Earl of Kildare in the 1740s, has housed the Dáil and Seanad since 1922; the President lives in Phoenix Park.
Q 23Phoenix Park covers roughly how many hectares?
707
Phoenix Park covers about 707 hectares, one of Europe's largest walled city parks, holding Dublin Zoo, the President's residence and the US ambassador's house.
The Gravity Bar on the seventh floor serves the complimentary pint with 360-degree views across Dublin; Queen Elizabeth II visited the Storehouse in 2011.
Q 14Handel's Messiah received its first performance in Dublin in which year?
1742
Messiah premiered on 13 April 1742 at Neal's Music Hall on Fishamble Street, a charity performance given while Handel was wintering in Dublin.
Q 15The Ha'penny Bridge of 1816 got its name from what?
A halfpenny toll to cross it
It was officially the Wellington Bridge; William Walsh held the right to charge the toll for 100 years.
Q 16The Easter Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April, in which year?
1916
The 1916 Rising ran six days from Easter Monday, 24 April; Patrick Pearse surrendered on 29 April and sixteen leaders were later executed, Roger Casement among them by hanging in London.
Q 17Which building on O'Connell Street served as the rebels' headquarters during the Easter Rising?
The General Post Office
The General Post Office was the rebels' headquarters; Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic outside it, and its portico columns bear bullet marks from the fighting.
Q 18The leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed at which Dublin prison, now a museum?
Kilmainham Gaol
Kilmainham Gaol, built in 1796 as the New Gaol, saw fourteen leaders shot in its stonebreakers' yard in May 1916; it closed in 1924 and reopened as a museum in 1966.
Q 19Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, saw British forces open fire on a crowd at which venue?
The GAA ground on Jones's Road
The stadium is now Croke Park; the shootings were a reprisal for Michael Collins's Squad killing members of the Cairo Gang that morning.
Q 20Roughly how many spectators can Croke Park hold?
82,300
Croke Park holds 82,300 after a redevelopment completed in 2005, by far the largest stadium in Ireland; the Aviva Stadium, the next biggest, holds about 51,700.
Q 24Which animals have roamed Phoenix Park since the 17th century?
Fallow deer
A herd of fallow deer has lived in the park since the Duke of Ormond enclosed it as a royal deer park in 1662; the Papal Cross marks John Paul II's 1979 mass there.
Q 25Dublin Zoo opened to the public in which year?
1831
Dublin Zoo opened to the public in September 1831 in Phoenix Park, among the world's oldest zoos; it became famous for lion breeding in the 19th century.
Q 26The Spire of Dublin stands on the site of which earlier monument?
Nelson's Pillar
Nelson's Pillar, an 1809 column topped by a statue of Horatio Nelson, was blown up by former IRA members in 1966; the stainless-steel Spire went up on the site in 2003.
Q 27How tall is the Spire of Dublin, officially the Monument of Light?
About 120 m
The Spire of Dublin rises about 120 metres (121.2 m) from O'Connell Street, a stainless-steel cone tapering from three metres wide at the base to 15 centimetres at the tip, completed in 2003.
Q 28The Book of Kells, on show at Trinity College, was created around which year?
800 AD
The Book of Kells was made around 800 AD, probably begun at Iona before reaching Kells; it holds the four Gospels in Latin on calf vellum and has been at Trinity since 1661.
Q 29Which medieval harp kept in Trinity's Long Room is the model for Ireland's national emblem?
The Brian Boru harp
The Brian Boru harp, a 14th- or 15th-century instrument kept in the Long Room of Trinity's Old Library, is the model for the harp on Ireland's coat of arms and coins.
Q 30Which satirist was dean of St Patrick's Cathedral from 1713 to 1745?
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift served as dean from 1713 until his death in 1745 and is buried in St Patrick's, Ireland's largest church; his bequest founded St Patrick's Hospital for the mentally ill.