Challenging Times
year winner runner-up
1991 St Patrick 's College , Maynooth University of Limerick
1992 St Patrick 's College , Maynooth Trinity College , Dublin
1993 University College , Cork Bolton Street College of Technology
1994 University College , Cork Cork Regional Technical College
1995 University College , Galway University of Limerick
1996 University College , Galway Cork Regional Technical College
1997 Dublin City University University of Limerick
1998 University College Dublin Dublin Institute of Technology
1999 National University of Ireland , Maynooth Dublin Institute of Technology
2000 National College of Ireland National University of Ireland , Galway
2001 University College , Cork National University of Ireland , Galway
Finals
Challenging Times was a television quiz show for teams representing higher education institutes in Ireland, both those in the Republic of Ireland and those in Northern Ireland. It was televised by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) from 1991 to 2001, sponsored by The Irish Times, and presented by Kevin Myers, then a columnist with that newspaper. The programme used a quizbowl format similar to that of University Challenge in the United Kingdom (the only difference is that the starter questions are worth five points, as opposed to ten on University Challenge), which is itself a licensed version of the College Bowl format popular in the United States. Each year, 16 teams qualified for the televised knockout stages, with two teams of three competing in each programme up to the final.