A YEAR THAT KNOCK ED OUR SPOTS OFF
Saoirse’s Lady Bird, a fight for the Áras, the Beast from the East and Brexit. Did 2018 make its mark on you or was it all just a blur...?
HOME AFFAIRS
1. Which Irish electoral constituency was the only one to vote against repealing the 8th Amendment to the Constitution in May’s historic referendum?
2. Who resigned from his post as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment in October after revelations about undisclosed dinners with David McCourt, the only remaining bidder for the National Broadband Plan contract?
3. Who was described as conducting a ‘campaign of calumny’ against Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe at the Disclosures Tribunal led by Supreme Court judge Peter Charleton?
4. Who was the surprise contender in the 2018 presidential race for the Aras who surged from just 2% in the polls to winning 23.3% of the total vote after launching a tirade of criticism at Ireland’s Travelling community and people on welfare, and where does he come from?
5. Who narrowly escaped a vote of No Confidence in the Dail in September after a motion was tabled by Sinn Féin but was defeated by 59 votes to 49? 6. Who were the Irish rugby players acquitted in the high-profile Belfast rape trial?
7. Who swept to power at the helm of Sinn Féin on February 10 after she succeeded longtime party leader Gerry Adams at a special ardfheis in Dublin?
8. It was nicknamed the Beast from the East by the media but what was the name of the severe Siberian-like storm that pummelled us with heavy snow and shut down the country in early March?
9. What proved to be the major stumbling block for Brexiteers, designed to ensure a frictionless border with the south, when it came to negotiating the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement from the EU?
10. What is the name of the umbrella group made up of housing groups that occupied a number of proper- ties in Dublin and staged national rallies and protests in a bid to highlight Ireland’s catastrophic housing crisis?
WORLD AFFAIRS
1. What was the name of the substance used to poison former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in the UK in March?
2. Which was the first major Western country to legalise cannabis for recreational use earlier this year?
3. What was the name of the company that harvested the Facebook data of millions of people in a major data breach and then went on to help Donald Trump in his race to the White House?
4. What is the name of the new rules designed to protect people’s privacy that came into effect in Europe in May 2018?
5. Before being appointed by Trump to the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh appeared on Washington’s Capitol Hill to testify about allegations of sexual misconduct. Who was the woman who made the allegations in an emotional testimony?
6. What is the name of the world’s first cryptocurrency that crashed spectacularly from an all-time high of almost $20,000 in 2017 to hovering around $3,000 in late 2018?
7 What’s the name of Trump’s former lawyer who was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to crimes while working for him, including paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels?
8. Which country opened its cinemas for the first time since 1973 and became the last in the world to allow women to drive in 2018?
9. What is the name of the spacesuit-wearing dummy currently piloting the multi-million red Tesla Roadster that Elon Musk blasted into space from his Falcon Heavy rocket in February and what is the name of the song being played on a loop?
10. Prince William and Kate welcomed their third child into the world in May. What did they name him?
SPORT
1. Who beat Ireland at their first ever women’s Hockey World Cup Final this year?
2. Which Irish player won the prestigious World Cup Rugby Men’s Player of the Year Award?
3. What League of Ireland football manager will be taking over the Irish International football team in two years’ time and who did he most recently manage?
4. In which city was this year’s 42nd Ryder Cup golf tournament held?
5. Limerick won the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. When was the last time they held the Liam McCarthy aloft at Croke Park?
6. Who did Limerick beat in that match?
7. Which female amateur boxer won a gold medal for Ireland in the lightweight category at the Women’s Elite Championships in India in November?
8. Who did Angelique Kerber beat to become the 2018 Women’s Wimbledon Champion?
9. Who clashed in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final in July?
10. What was the nickname given to South Korean Olympic athlete Yun Sung-bin who became the first athlete outside Europe or North
America to win an Olympic sliding medal when he won the men’s skeleton gold in the Winter Olympics in Seoul wearing headgear based on an Avengers character?
MUSIC
1. Which iconic world-famous Limerick rock star died in her London hotel room in January?
2. Who starred in the Oscar-tipped romantic movie remake of the 1976 film A Star Is Born, originally starring Barbara Streisland and Kris Kristofferson?
3. Which iconic musical legend, now in her 70s, made an unlikely musical comeback in 2018 after starring in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and releasing a string of music, including a covers album of Abba hits?
4. What was the name of the Swedish DJ and musician who shot to fame in 2011 with his single Levels, and who died aged 28 on April 20?
5. What is the name of Justin Bieber’s model and TV presenter bride?
6. Which American singer who penned No Tears Left To Cry after the terror attack at her concert at Manchester Arena in England was named Woman of the Year by Billboard magazine?
7. Which former Led Zeppelin member just lost a five-year battle against his neighbour, the former Take That member Robbie Williams, over plans to build an underground swimming pool?
8. Who brilliantly plays the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the film about his life, Bohemian Rhapsody?
9. Which singer, the daughter of a well-known British comedian, landed a Mercury nomination with her 2018 fourth album in which she opened up about everything from her drug use, to being a new mother to surviving her broken marriage?
10. Name the two female performers whose long-running rivalry morphed into an undignified fistfight at Harper’s Bazaar New York Fashion Week party in September?
BOOKS
Who was the much-loved Irish novelist and blogger who captured the heart of the nation with her moving writings about living with cancer and died on March 3, aged 45? 2. Who was the rock and roll celebrity chef, author, television personality and documentary maker who died by suicide in June? 3. Which Belfast author became the first Northern Irish writer to win the Man Booker prize for fiction with her third novel Milkman in 2018? 4. Stephen Hawking, the world-famous English theoretical physicist behind the bestselling tome A Brief History of Time, died on March 14 but who played the scientist in the film, The Theory of Everything? 5. Name the two literary American heavyweight authors — one who wrote Bonfire of the Vanities and the other who penned American Pastoral — who died in their 80s within eight days of each other in May?
6. Irish writer Sally Rooney’s second book following a couple falling in love in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland won a slew of awards at home and abroad, including the An Post Novel of the Year Award and Waterstones’ UK’s Book of the Year. What’s the name of the book?
7. What’s the name of the character dreamed up by Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, about a specific type of Irish girl, who started out as a Facebook page in 2008 and inspired two books that raced to the top of the bestseller lists, the most recent in September 2018?
8. Who is the American journalist, famous for uncovering the Watergate scandal, who turned a most unflattering lens on Donald Trump’s chaotic reign at the White House in his book Fear published earlier this year?
9. Which 1972 book by Richard Adams about a group of rabbits inspired an animated television mini series starring James McEvoy and Gemma Arterton?
10. What was the name of Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir?