Our Quiz

Ok, let’s see how smart you are!

SO, it’s our Christmas Quiz this week. ere will be a prize of €50 One For All Card to be won for the rst correct answer drawn. e winner will be drawn in time to spend your prize at Christmas. e questions are eclectic, ranging from multiple choice, true or false and a riddle or two to make it interesting. Get your answers in via post or email by Tuesday, December 21 and the draw will take place on ursday, December 23 and the winner will be announced in the paper of January 7, 2022.

1. Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk said the brain of which animal had been implanted with a computer chip, as part of his Neuralink venture?

a. Gertude the pig. b. omas the bear c. Billy the Sheep.

2. Consumers trying to take advantage of Christmas deals temporarily crashed a company’s website in November – whose was it?

a. Naked Wines. b. Alibaba c. Amazon

3. Drinks giant Diageo recalled its alcohol-free Guinness 0.0 just two weeks after launch in the UK, because: a. ere was evidence of contamination and the possible presence of mould. b. Alcohol was present c. Problems with ring pull

4. In which city does the annual Christmas busk including the likes of Bono and Glen Hansard take place?

5. Which city is Die Hard set in?

6.What is traditionally hidden inside a Christmas pudding?

a. Money. b. A rag c. A ring

7. Who served up ggy pudding in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol?

a. Mrs Cratchett. b. e Ghost of Christmas future. c. Tiny Tim.

8. In what classic novel does the protagonist set sail for a sea voyage on a cold Christmas day

a. Moby Dick b. Treasure Island c. Gone With e wind.

9. How many gifts were given in e Twelve Days of Christmas song? a. 364 b. 202 c. 187 10. Name of the ctional Christmas song that makes Hugh Grant rich from all the royalties in About A Boy? a. Rudolf Where Are You? b. Santa’s Super Sleigh c. e Night e Elf Danced.

11. What is Phishing?

a. When scammers try to obtain sensitive information from you. b. When scammers hack your computer. c. When you illegally download something, like a movie. 12. What is disposable income?

a. e amount of money you can spend after you’ve paid your mortgage payments b. e amount of money you don’t need to save at the end of the month c. e amount of money you can spend after all xed taxes have been paid

13. What does in ation mean? a. Less value of money due to sustained increase in prices b. Prices decrease c. More value of money due to sustained decrease in prices

14. You reduce the risk of investing in the stock market by buying a wide range of stocks? a. True b. False.

15. Your friend tells you to invest in gold. What should you do rst?

a. Research information b. Make an investment plan for ve years c. Shop for gold jewelry

16. What are the currencies of the following countries: (a)China, (b) Brazil, (c)Isreal, (d)Turkey, and (e) South Korea?

17. Who said: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”? 18. In which country was paper money rst used as a currency?

19.Which stock market has the Hang Seng Index?

20. In the Christmas story of the ree Wise Men, what are the gifts they gave to baby Jesus?

21. In which European country was the original St. Nicholas born?

22. What is the biggest selling Christmas single of all time?

23. According to 1946’s Christmas classic It’s Wonderful Life, what happens every time a bell rings? 24. A Christmas anagram - knife scanner?

25. In which classic Christmas lm does Bill Murray play TV executive Frank Cross?

26. And nally a riddle or two – one for Mammy and Daddy: A chicken was given €7, an ant was given €21, a spider was given €28. How much money was the dog given?

And one for the children: I drop from the sky far more beautiful than rain. ere are no two pieces that’ll ever look the same. What am I?

Best of festive luck to everyone.

John Ellis

No Christmas parole for killer of mum and girls, pleads brother

THE brother of a woman murdered in Kilkenny along with her two children has told how he’s now forced to once again write to a parole board to keep their killer behind bars.

Sharon Whelan, 30, and her girls Zarah, seven, and Nadia, two, were murdered by postman Brian Hennessy at their home in Windgap, Co Kilkenny on Christmas Day 2008.

And now it’s emerged that Hennessy, who raped and strangled Sharon before killing her children in a horri c re, is due for a parole hearing for a second time since he was jailed for murder in 2009.

Speaking exclusively to e Star’s new crime podcast ‘Shattered Lives,’ Sharon’s brother John told how he’s got a letter ready to go to the Parole Board — pleading for Hennessy to be kept in prison.

“I have it (the letter) ready because the prison service has told us his parole is going to be up.

“It’s strange that we’re put into that position of having to think about it, and having to plea with a parole board who are tasked with this, which does not have a representative from any victim’s organisations or victims charities or campaign groups,” he said.

John told the podcast, which is available from on Spotify, Apple and Google, that someone like Hennessy — who has never showed any remorse — should never be released.

And he feels the State is letting families like his down by repeatedly asking them to write down their reasons as to why their loved one’s killer should stay in prison.

“I would argue someone like Brian Hennessy, who was able to take three lives, come home and fall asleep on the couch, have Christmas dinner with his family and then go and have Christmas dinner with his girlfriend’s family and act like nothing happened. If my family has been murdered in England, Brian Hennessy would be under a whole life tari right now.

“ en we would be in a position to try and move on with our lives,” he said.

“Because what happens when you have parole, and remember it’s every 12 years but then it can be every year or two after that.

“So the State is compliant in retraumatising families because we are being dragged back to the very start again,” he said.

In the interview, the murdered woman’s brother tells of waking up on Christmas morning and hearing the horri c news of his sister’s death.

“It was Christmas morning and our boys, who were 10 and three at the time, were obviously excited.

“ ey were up early and down they went and we opened up all the presents and all that and we had the cups of tea and the hot chocolate..

“I nipped upstairs just to have a shower and as I was getting dressed I could hear Sandra downstairs. ere was a commotion kind of going on downstairs. She called me to come down, Mam was on the phone and she was pretty upset and hysterical.

“All I could make out was Mam saying Sharon’s house was on re. ere’s been a re.” ree local men risked their lives to go into the house while it was on re and they brought the three bodies out. at incredible act of bravery by three local men meant that Gardai were able to collect vital DNA evidence which ultimately convicted local postman Brian Hennessy for the murders.

It later emerged during the court case that Hennessy, who did not know Sharon personally, raped the mother-of-two in the early hours of Christmas morning, and then waited nearly ve hours before deciding to set re to her home, killing her two little girls.

Zara Whelan, seven, (left) and Nadia Whelan, two and a half, during a visit to meet Santa Claus. (Image: Family handout/PA Wire)

School campus for Wetlands

KILKENNY and Carlow Educational Training Board (KCETB) have applied for planning permission to construct a new 12,692.7m2 school campus containing two postprimary schools at Poulgour, Wetlands, Kilkenny. e rst school will be comprised of two two-storey blocks including general classrooms, specialist rooms, S.E.N.S. area, circulation areas, o ces, plant room, dining hall and associated kitchen and storage areas.

e second school will be comprised of one two-storey block including general classrooms, specialist rooms, circulation areas, o ces, plant room, dining hall and associated kitchen and storage areas. A sports hall, including two tness suites and associated changing and storage areas are also included in the plans, alongside an ESB Substation, new vehicular access, three new pedestrian entrances to the site (serving Poulgour Road and Western Environs Link Road), an on-site set down area and sta car parking.

Hard play and landscaped social areas, sports facilities in a fenced area around the school campus, storm sewer connection works, watermain connection works and ancillary and site services complete the plans.

Kilkenny County Council are due to make a decision on the project in late January, 2022.