The Big Weekend Christmas Quiz 2025: 100 questions to test your general knowledge

To mark the 40th anniversary of our weekly quiz, Noel Welch has compiled some of his favourite questions of all time – so you can enjoy testing your general knowledge over the festive season. You'll find the answers at the end of the quiz

Fri, 26 Dec, 2025 - 06:00

Noel Welch

Scroll to the end to check your answers...

1. What is the federal capital of Pakistan?

2. Did the Battle of Clontarf take place in 1014, 1114, or 1214?

3. In which country is the province of Champagne?

4. Is melittology the study of ants, bees, or moths?

5. What is the largest city in Cyprus?

6. What is the first novel in the Harry Potter series?

7. Carrick-on-Suir is in which county?

8. In what film did Sean Connery star as James Bond for the last time?

9. What is US President, Donald Trump’s middle name?

President Donald Trump. Picture: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

10. Who had a 1990 hit with The Obvious Child?

11. In which city were the 2020 Summer Olympic Games held?

12. Who co-starred with Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1997 film, Titanic?

13. What was the title of the Beatles 10-song, debut album?

14. The headquarters of the Hyundai Motor Company is in which country?

15. Who was President of Ireland, from 1990 to 1997?

16. Which English Premier League football club won their first major trophy in May this year?

17. The samba dance style is associated with which country?

18. What is the Irish word for flowers?

19. Who were the pop duo Wham?

20. Who played the seventh Earl of Grantham in the TV series Downton Abbey?

21. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which one began with the letter ‘B’?

22. Which country adopted the euro in 2002, despite not being a European Union member?

23. Which is Poland’s longest river?

24. What word refers to a group of words with similiar meanings?

25. Which of these sporting events is the oldest: The English St. Leger, Isle of Man TT Race, or FIFA World Cup?

26. Which country includes the historic region of Bohemia?

27. Which country has the nickname ‘The Land of a Thousand Lakes’?

28. Which former US President was laid to rest in January of this year?

29. What is the capital of Croatia?

30. What was the first name of the Italian tenor, Caruso?

31. Who was Queen of France during the French Revolution?

32. Who was the first director of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)?

33. Who played Frank Reagan in the TV police series, Blue Bloods?

34. Who did Cork-born, Cillian Murphy, portray to win him an Oscar?

35. In which city is the La Scala opera house?

36. How many times has Brazil won the FIFA World Cup?

37. Who wrote The Harlot’s House, Poems in Prose, and The Sphinx?

38. What is the capital of the Isle of Man?

39. Which is Ireland’s oldest city?

40. In what year did Elvis Presley die?

41. What sport does Scottie Scheffler compete in?

42. Who is the only main character in the TV series, Friends, who does not get married?

43. Anastasia and Drizella Tremaine are stepsisters of which childrens’ story character?

44. Which was the first smallest country to qualify for a FIFA World Cup tournament?

45. What colour hat does Bob the Builder wear?

46. (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life comes from which 1987 film?

47. Who was the third President of Ireland?

48. Who was known as the ‘Queen of Motown’?

49. What is trypanophobia the fear of?

50. What is the Spanish word for ‘today’?

51. What nuts are used to make marzipan?

A traditional Christmas fruit cake with marzipan

52. Which writer once said: ‘’The report of my death was an exaggeration’’?

53. The Spirit of Ecstasy is a feature on what car brand?

54. Which actress provides the narration in the film Enchanted?

55. Silver is associated with what wedding anniversary?

56. Ireland’s only cable car runs from the mainland to which island?

57. In what year was Taylor Swift born?

Taylor Swift. Picture: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File

58. The Soldier Field sports stadium is in which US city?

59. Which is the Republic of Ireland’s only large wildlife park?

60. Peter Parker is the name of which superhero?

61. How many colours are in the rainbow?

62. What does the Latin word ‘tempus’ mean in English?

63. How many episodes of the hit TV series Fawlty Towers were made?

64. What colour do you get when you mix blue and yellow?

65. Which mammal is known to spend almost all of its life in eucalyptus trees?

66. What is the next prime number after 89?

67. In Only Fools and Horses, what three place names are on the back of Del Boy’s van?

Nicholas Lyndhurst and David Jason in Only Fools and Horses

68. In 1915, the Lusitania sank of the coast of which Irish county?

69. How many senior All-Ireland football finals have Dublin won; 29, 30 or 31?

70. Elphaba, Glinda, and, Prince Fiero, are characters in which musical film?

71. In what year was Ireland’s last win in the Eurovision Song Contest?

72. Whose nickname was ‘The Godfather of Soul’?

73. ‘The Kabin’ features in which TV soap?

74. True or false, One Direction never won The X Factor?

75. Chromatica was the fourth UK No. I album for which singer, in 2020?

76. Who wrote the novel, Dombey and Son?

77. Where will the National Ploughing Championships be held in 2026?

78. In which county is the village of Letterfrack?

79. TV series game show, The Traitors Ireland, was hosted by which actress?

80. Who was the 35th President of America?

81. Who, in 1921, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect?

82. What is the chemical symbol for gold?

83. Which children’s character lives in a pineapple under the sea?

84. Who played the Bull McCabe in the 1990 film, The Field?

85. Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final, but who scored the other England goal?

86. What was the name of the waitress/hotel maid, in Fawlty Towers?

87. Who was the last King of America?

88. In which city did the first performance of Handel’s Messiah, take place, in 1742?

89. Table Mountain is in which African country?

90. That’s All Right was the first commercial single, in 1954, for which singer?

91. What is the most sold book in the world?

92. Who is the patron saint of France for her role in the siege of Orléans?

93. Which of these Milan clubs is the oldest; Inter Milan, or AC Milan?

94. The town of Ballygawley is in which Northern Ireland county?

95. Who wrote the novel, The Three Muskateers?

96. In which city did Katie Taylor win her first Olympic gold medal?

Katie Taylor. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

97. Which department store features in the 1947 film, Miracle on 34th Street?

98. Munster became the first Irish team to beat the All Blacks, in what year?

99. The RMS Olympic and the HMHS Britannic, were sisters ships of which other ship?

100. How many von Trapp children are in The Sound of Music?

Answers...

Quizmaster Noel Welch, who has been running the weekly quiz for 40 years. Picture: Larry Cummins

1. Islamabad; 2. 1014; 3. France; 4. Bees; 5. Limassol; 6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; 7. Co. Tipperary; 8. Never Say Never Again; 9. John; 10. Paul Simon; 11. Tokyo; 12. Kate Winslet; 13. Please Please Me; 14. South Korea; 15. Mary Robinson; 16. Crystal Palace; 17. Brazil; 18. Bláthanna; 19. George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley; 20. Hugh Bonneville; 21. Bashful; 22. Kosovo; 23. Vistula; 24. Synonyms; 25. English St. Leger; 26. Czech Republic; 27. Finland; 28. Jimmy Carter; 29. Zagreb; 30. Enrico; 31. Marie Antoinette; 32. J. Edgar Hoover; 33. Tom Selleck; 34. Robert Oppenheimer; 35. Milan; 36. Five; 37. Oscar Wilde; 38. Douglas; 39. Waterford; 40. 1977; 41. Golf; 42. Joey Tribbiani; 43. Cinderella; 44. Iceland; 45. Yellow; 46. Dirty Dancing; 47. Éamon de Valera; 48. Diana Ross; 49. Needles; 50. Hoy; 51. Almonds; 52. Mark Twain; 53. Rolls-Royce; 54. Julie Andrews; 55. Twenty-fifth; 56. Dursey Island; 57. 1989; 58. Chicago; 59. Fota, in Cork; 60. Spiderman; 61. Seven; 62. Time; 63. Twelve; 64. Green; 65. Koala bear; 66. Ninety-seven; 67. New York, Paris, Peckham; 68. Co. Cork; 69. Thirty-one; 70. Wicked; 71. 1996 (Eimear Quinn singing The Voice); 72. James Brown; 73. Coronation Street; 74. True; (They were third, behind the winner Matt Cardle); 75. Lady Gaga; 76. Charles Dickens; 77. Screggan, Co. Offaly; 78. Co. Galway; 79. Siobhán McSweeney; 80. John F. Kennedy; 81. Albert Einstein; 82. Au; 83. SpongeBob SquarePants; 84. Richard Harris; 85. Martin Peters; 86. Polly Sherman; 87. George III; 88. Dublin; 89. South Africa; 90. Elvis Presley; 91. The Bible; 92. Joan of Arc; 93. AC Milan; 94. Co. Tyrone; 95. Alexandre Dumas; 96. London, in 2012; 97. Macys; 98. 1978; 99. Titanic; 100. Seven.