Here in Ireland, going to the pub is a part of life. Sometimes you have a Pint, sometimes you don’t. I often wondered why it’s such a big part of the Irish culture. For me, the answer came when I started realizing that traditionally – Irish have large families and very small homes. This means that the Pub became what is effectively everyone’s living room when you wanted a bit of space to “yourself”. It also became a place to meet your mates and a heart of the community. Now – with a housing crisis here in Ireland and many individuals and families forced to share houses and apartments (I know of several single mums that share eg. a 3 bedroom house – in which each mum has a room – shared with their youngest one or two – and the older kids all share a bedroom too!) what I’ve found is that folks spend time at the pub. Eg. Your roommate or the kids are using the living room to watch something. You go to the pub to give them space and not spend your life in the bedroom or kitchen.

That being said – part of Irish life and the center of everything is the Pub quiz. Some Pubs have them weekly, while others have special events to fund raise. I’ve been to a few while here – but recently had my chance to help organise one for the democrats abroad. Basically, several of us wrote up 50 questions – and then the “host” chose a few from each area to include in the sections. Because so many of us wrote questions – we could still participate – because in total only 4-6 questions (out of 50 asked) were used -and we didn’t know all the answers.

The First annual Pub quiz for Dems abroad was held on July 13, at the Stag’s Head Pub in the city center. There were about 50 ex-pats that showed up and answered questions from about 8 pm – 11:30pm. Marja and her husband were the “tally” for the team and then the Dem’s Abroad Chair (TJ) was the host.

Marja and TJ

My team was made up of Paddy, myself, Stephanie, and then another Patrick and his wife (Irish) who we met at the table quiz. Our team name was the “#NeverTrump-eteers”. The 3 of us from work were stumped on many questions -but amazingly – the couple we met knew many of the answers. My team came in 2nd.

Some other teams had really great names – like “Make America Great Britain again”

And Donald Trump’s Tiny T-Rex Hands.

The entire night – we had a great time – and the first, second, and third place teams were all within 2 points of each other (55, 54, 53 points).

The first place team: the Kew Tours! – who won the glamourous hotel voucher for 2.

The second place team (mine): The #Never Trump-eteers (who won back the 3 bottles of wine that I donated):

And the third place team -I can see Ballsbridge from my house – who won a fabulous bag of gourmet Gummy bears:

it was a great evening – and very successful in terms of fund raising. Hopefully, we can do another one sometime soon!