I suffered from things like “I know 11 was the first Ireland Olympic Gold medal, but I don’t remember the bloke’s name. Probably either Farrell or Callahan, it usually is…”
and
“The only French C20 artistic movement I can think of is dadaism, so I would certainly guess that but it is probably cheating”
On the basis of guesses of that sort I would have got 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18 and 19, but mostly with not enough accuracy ie I don’t think you would have accepted “the first Irish gold medallist and who cares what his name was?”
Remember that this was specifically for a Mensa Ireland night, so Pat O’Callaghan is still remembered as one of our greatest ever athletes, even if not a household name elsewhere.
Likewise John Tyndall’s name has been much bandied about of late, as he was one of the first to describe what later became widely known (if not accurately understood) as the greenhouse effect.
As an occasional quizbird I like to aim for “somewhat guessable” questions, so for example dada is a French C20 artistic movement that sounds weird so it would be a fair guess.
(My mate wot does the Princess Charlotte Quiz is crueller.)
Yes, well, using a pin combined with “it can’t be that” in the new-fangled multiple choice paper of my Chemistry O-level got me a 1; on the written paper I got a 9. The Northern Board examiners were probably rather confused about that.