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Quiz: How much do you know about addresses to the nation?

You’ve probably seen more than enough of them at this stage.
10.00pm, 2 Jan 2022
46.7k
15

BEFORE 2020, AN address to the nation from the Taoiseach was a relative rarity.

Now, no matter what time of the day you switch on the telly, no matter what channel you watch, there’s sure to be one on.

That might be a slight exaggeration, but still, Covid announcements at the start of the Six One are a dime a dozen these days.

Let’s test your knowledge of the addresses, new and old.

What was Jack Lynch talking about here?
RTÉ
Austerity measures
Violence in Northern Ireland

The death of Éamon de Valera
A lovely new tunnel
What did Enda Kenny address the nation about in 2011?
RTÉ
The EU-IMF bailout
Measures to be contained in Budget 2012

JobBridge
He shouted 'Up Mayo' with increasingly frenetic energy for about 10 minutes until the broadcast was cut
How many more addresses would Kenny make during his time as Taoiseach?
RTÉ
One
Three

Six
A million! Literally a million.
What's the iconic line from Charles Haughey's 1980 address?
RTÉ
As a community, we are living way beyond our means.
A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer.

If we don't stand together we will surely fail in this effort to calm the troubled waters we are in.
As a community, we are living away beyond our means.
Who used these graphs to demonstrate the state of the country's finances?
Enda Kenny
Charles Haughey

Garret FitzGerald
Some guy on Twitter
Okay, it's time for the Covid ones. Which line from Leo Varadkar's June 2020 address was a reference to the film Mean Girls?
Never again will we take something as simple as a haircut for granted, or time spent with parents or grandparents, or meeting friends for a drink.
After studying the expert advice of NPHET, Cabinet today approved the rephasing of the Roadmap. Apart from some exceptions, most things are now being moved to Phase 3, beginning on Monday 29 June.

Some have asked whether there is a limit to what we can achieve. My answer is that the limit does not exist.
Wow these girls sure are mean, ain't they?
As was the fashion at the time, Varadkar quoted Seamus Heaney in his April 2020 address, saying "if we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere". What was Heaney referring to?
Alamy
The 1980s recession
A foot-and-mouth outbreak in 1965 that crippled the Irish farming industry

The Troubles
Winter
What colour tie did Micheál Martin usually wear for his addresses to the nation in 2021?
Pink (to make the girls wink)
A simple grey

A deep green
A safe maroon
"I am speaking to you tonight because I thought you would expect me to. I have been too busy to prepare any corrected manuscript, so I must speak to you from notes. I know you will understand." Whose radio address began with these words?
Shutterstock
Garret Fitzgerald
Liam Cosgrave

Éamon de Valera
Douglas Hyde
And what did the radio broadcast focus on?
Alamy
The partition of Ireland
Fianna Fáil's loss in 1948 election

Britain entering World War II
The importance of premarital celibacy
Answer all the questions to see your result!
Julien Behal Photography
You scored out of !
You are Micheál Martin, you just can't stop firing out the addresses
Share your result:
Julien Behal Photography
You scored out of !
You are Leo Varadkar, you can't wait to get back to giving addresses
Share your result:
You scored out of !
You are Michael D Higgins, who also gives the occasional address to the nation but didn't really get a look-in during this quiz
Share your result:
RollingNews.ie
You scored out of !
You are Bertie Ahern, who maybe wishes he had the chance to address the nation
Share your result:

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