Tuesday Night Is Fun Pub Quiz Night in Michael Collins

I went to a Pub quiz for the first time while living in Ireland, where it is popular. You can do it for fun. A lot of people participate for charity fundraising.

Michael Collins, the pub!

The pub culture

I loved living in Ireland. And I love Irish culture so imagine my happiness when I found out I had a local Irish pub, Michael Collins, in Barcelona (Yay!). In addition, they have a pub quiz night! I planned a few nights out there.

In Ireland, a pub is a social place where you meet with friends, drink loads of beer and talk “shite”. You could spend hours doing so and having a good craic (good fun). You can also listen to traditional Irish bands, watch games or eat.

A nice atmosphere

The atmosphere is always friendly, the music super loud, so you have to shout most of the time to the point that the day after, you can barely speak (ok, not always).

I like Michael Collins because it feels… “pubby”, decor and atmosphere wise! From the outside, it looks small. When you enter, there is a first room with tables, chairs and screens, a corridor along the bar, then a bigger room with a fireplace at the back, wooden tables, stools and more screens.

There is also another small room parallel to the bar. The pub has a lot of photos referencing Irish culture as well.

About the pub food

The pub serves bar food too. The quiz starts at 9 pm. We usually arrive one hour early to enjoy one pint or two and eat a burger or bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes).

The food is tasty and reasonably priced. An Irish beef burger is worth 8.5 euros.

The pub quiz

Some rounds of questions

Now down to business. For those who don’t know what a pub quiz is, well, it is a series of questions about general knowledge, politics, geography, history, movies, music and other themes, organised in rounds that are then marked.

This quiz has four rounds of 10 questions on various topics. Each team can put a joker on what they assess as a “good” round to double their points. The quiz master marks each paper during the breaks. So you usually know where you stand against your competitors.

The prize

You come with your group and compete with other groups that probably know more things than you and will end up winning the weekend trip in a 4-star hotel you want so much or, in the case of Michael Collins, the bottle of whiskey they give to the best team.

Tough questions in play

Questions at pub quizzes can be really tough. When you know the answer, it is rewarding. Otherwise, they can wreck your head.

Try to remember this band singing this famous song about 500 miles that you have heard on and on again on the radio and whose name is on the tip of your tongue, but you cannot damn remember it. Then there are the discussions about whether the third country crossed by the equator is Venezuela or Colombia.

Move your answers forward

You try to remember your world map, put forward your arguments in favour of “your country”, and then there is the team vote about “the right answer”.

It could be yours if you sound convincing enough. If the majority does not choose your answer, don’t take it personally.

Quiz time, fun time!

Pub quizzes are good fun, especially when you sing along with that 1982 band. It is even more fun when you get your points and see eight instead of the five you thought you were getting.

And even more than even more fun (can it be possible?) when you are among the first ten prize winners (even if you are joint 9th with some-other-group-with-a-funny-name) and you go home with a bottle of white wine.

I will go back again!

In summary, it was the 6th time I went to Michael Collins on a Tuesday night. I love their pub quiz so much. I will go again and drag more friends with me, because I am eyeing that first place, and it will soon be mine. I WILL GET THERE, PEOPLE!