13 Best Irish Characters In Video Games
Irish characters from the Emerald Isle are hard to find in video games, and these are the best ones.
When it comes to stereotypes, video games have a pretty bad past. On the one hand, you can see how we got to this point. Fighting games need character archetypes that people will remember, games set in other countries aren’t always made by people who live there, and every Italian is just like Mario. On the other hand, it leads to a lot of offensive and old-fashioned ways of showing people and cultures that are reduced to flags and accents.
Over the years, the few Irish video games we’ve had have been a pretty mixed bag. Some of it has been right on, some of it seems well-intentioned but a little off, and some of it…
Aran Ryan – Punch-Out
Aran Ryan isn’t the best way to show what an Irish person is like. But when you compare him to some of the other characters in Punch-Out, Irish people got off pretty easy. He takes the place of Pizza Pasta (yes, that’s the Italian’s name) in Super Punch-Out for the SNES. But Charles Martinet still voices him, so he doesn’t completely lose his Italian roots.
In Punch-Out for the Wii, he looks even worse because booing him seems to be the crowd’s favorite thing to do. We can’t help but think that if there was a new Punch-Out game. Ryan’s personality might change a bit, given how popular Irish boxers like Katie Taylor have become in the years since.
Aiden Pearce – Watch Dogs
When Watch Dogs came out, we might have been too hard on Aiden Pearce. In that game, he is a dull, moody uncle, but that’s because he is from Belfast and that’s how he is. Maybe he’s always in a bad mood because he lives in Chicago and misses real Irish pubs and a well-poured Guinness.
By the time the DLC for Watch Dogs Legion came out with him in it. He had thankfully become more interesting. But he was probably even more unhappy because he had to live in a dystopian version of London.
Becky Lynch – WWE
The hardest part about making a list like this is that there aren’t many original Irish characters in video games. Because there are so few Irish characters in games, we had to add a few real Irish people here.
Some people may argue about whether or not anyone on WWE is real or just a character. But Becky Lynch is a real Irish woman who was born in Limerick and grew up in Dublin. She is probably the most popular and liked Irish wrestler, but that’s just her Munster charm shining through.
Tony Cascarino – Sensible Soccer
Yes, we are much better at rugby as a country, and there have only been a few Gaelic football and Hurling games over the years. But the last real Irish person on this list has to be a famous soccer player from Ireland who has played in a lot of football games over the years.
Even though Robbie Keane is a local hero and played in every FIFA game up until 2017. And Roy Keane might be upset that we didn’t pick him, only Tony Cascarino has a song about him.
Ellen Reid – Folklore
Remember Folklore? We didn’t do much, but this JRPG from 2007 is one of the few triple-A games that takes place in Ireland (and also the magical Netherworld).
Ellen, the main character, isn’t the most interesting person in the game. But she is the key to this strange world. It’s interesting to see how a Japanese development team interpreted many Irish myths and legends. Even though the game hasn’t held up well over time, it’s still a notable release from Sony that respected Irish history and folklore.
Sean MacGuire – Red Dead Redemption 2
In the two Red Dead games, Irish characters have done a lot of different things. It’s hard not to be offended by how one-dimensional the drunk named Irish is in the first game, and Colm O’Driscoll may be one of the worst people in a series full of them. Molly O’Shea, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air, and Sean MacGuire is an Irish sidekick who is real and easy to like.
After he gets back together with Van Der Linde’s gang in Red Dead Redemption 2. We wish we could spend more time with him. But bad luck and a surprise attack in Rhodes led to his brutal and sudden death.
Sean Devlin – The Saboteur
Something about the late 2000s made a lot of game companies start putting Irish characters in their games all at once. Mafia 2 and GTA 4 both had Irish gangs, but Sean Devlin was one of the few Irish characters who was shown in a good light at the time.
The resistance fighter known as “The Irishman” ran away to France to avoid being charged with a crime. After living there for a few years, he saw the Nazis invade. Maybe the 600 years of British rule that were in his blood made him stand up to an invading force that was much bigger and stronger than him. No matter what made him do it, he messed up a lot of Nazi plans.
William – Nioh
We don’t know much about the main character of Nioh, except that he was an Irish sailor before the events of the game. But because of a shipwreck, he is now stuck in a mythical Japan. That is run by the government, and he must quickly learn to adapt to survive.
We like to think that all the years he spent playing the hurley helped him become so good with a katana. But that’s just our own made-up story. You’ll come to love this quiet survivor as you both die over and over again in this cruel land. At least nothing bad will have happened to him by the second game, right?
Thomas Burke – Mafia 3
Does Thomas Burke fit the stereotype of an ex-IRA soldier who hides out in Louisiana and never stops swearing? Yes.
Did we really let this charismatic loose cannon run most of the parts of New Bordeux that we took over? Of course.
Moira – Overwatch
Moira and Mercy might be two of the characters that the Overwatch community talks about the most. Her position as a healer who is very durable and can deal a lot of damage makes her the worst enemy of many DPS players.
So, how could you dislike her velvety accent and her moody personality?
Anna And Nina Williams – Tekken
It’s easy to forget that the most popular sisters in Tekken are from Ireland. What with all the robot men, wood men, pandas, the Devil Gene, boxing kangaroos and raptors, and so on.
Most Irish people who live outside of Ireland get along great with other Irish people, but Anna and Nina couldn’t hate each other more if they tried. Worse, because their father was in the IRA. They are both dangerous killers who are always trying to embarrass each other.
Atlas – BioShock
Any Irish person will say that Atlas from the first BioShock game has the best Irish accent in video games. This guiding force sounds like a guy you’d meet in a pub in Dublin. And for most of the game, he seems just as friendly.
But in a shocking turn of events, it turns out that Atlas is really Fontaine, a New Yorker who speaks with the most perfect Dublin accent imaginable to trick the main character into helping him get rid of Andrew Ryan. Even though Fontaine might not be Irish, his voice actor, Karl Hanover, is. So he gets an honorable mention for being able to fool everyone into thinking he’s your friend from around the corner.
Kasio – If Found…
There is no more honest and real picture of Ireland than the one shown in If Found in 1993 on Achill Island. This small indie game didn’t get much attention in 2020. But it’s about Kasio, a young trans woman who goes to college in Dublin and has a hard time there. When she graduates, she goes back to her rural home.
Kasio and her friends feel like the most real Irish characters ever shown in 8 Ball Pool game. This could be because of how the world is built and how it makes references to Irish TV and phrases. She is also a very interesting and likeable character who is just trying to find her place in the world. Which is something many Irish people who live abroad can relate to.
