Saint Patrick's Day was not too long ago, so: who you do think is the best fictional Irish character and why?
The brothers from Boondock Saints were good. Celty Sturluson from Durarara! is also worth noting, but she's technically a spirit.
She's definitely Fae, but I'm not sure that she's a spirit. She has a physical body and is just as vulnerable to injury as a human. She just heals a lot faster.
No one's going for Finn McCool? Seriously, that's an awesome name. I know I'm late, but if Finn McCool isn't on the ballot, I'd have gone for Miles O'Brien. He's the opposite of Finn McCool.
Remember that speech about what qualifies as "pop culture"? Finn McCool is "mythology", not "pop culture". If I added ANY mythological character in this poll, it would be Cuchulainn, who eats Finn McCool for breakfast. Cuchulainn is basically an Irish version of Conan the Barbarian.
So where's the divide? Finn McCool and Cuchulainn were certainly part of pop culture, just like Merlin and Arthur or Ali Baba and Sinbad. They still are pop-culture in a lot of respects. I'm pretty sure there are comic books of all of them. And a lot of younger pop culture characters are heavily influenced by them, if not just repolished, repackaged versions of them. - - Auto Merge - - additionally, I can't find the speech because I'm blind, illiterate and an imbecile. :S
Paraphrasing a bit, but this is the speech: "Usually pop culture has to do with mainstream media. Merlin, King Arthur, Sinbad and Ali Baba are 'pop culture characters', and Finn McCool and Cuchulainn are not, at least not where I come from. Don't get me wrong, I love Irish mythology, but most people outside Ireland don't even know who they are. To qualify as 'pop culture' usually something has to be overwhelmingly popular and sometimes bridge generational gaps."
Obviously we're going to have to do an Irish revival. Like Yeats but with Heavy Metal and Explosions. (And Rainbows and cupcakes and unicorns.)
