Last week, to celebrate St Patrick's Day, I asked you to
vote for your favourite Irish TV character. I forgot to include Nathan from
Misfits, and there was some debate about the Irishness of
Merlin's Morgana, but I think we overcame those issues. Plenty of people voted for Nathan as their own "other vote", and Morgana means "queen" in Old Irish – so isn't that proof the character's from the Emerald Isle? There were
84 votes, with the results below:
NO VOTES
Burn Notice's Fiona Glenanne,
CSI Miami's Horatio Caine,
30 Rock's Jack Donaghy,
Boardwalk Empire's Margaret Schroeder, Mrs Brown from
Mrs Brown's Boys, Mrs Doyle from
Father Ted,
Lights Out's Patrick O'Leary,
In Treatment's Paul Weston,
Mad Men's Peggy Olson &
Scrubs' Perry Cox.
7. Elizabeth Bishop, Morgana, Tommy Gavin, Bernard Black – 2.38% Only a few votes for
Fringe's sympathetic grieving mother Elizabeth (Orla Brady), which is still pretty good, considering she's only appeared in a few episodes; a disappointing response for the jewel-eyed Morgana (Katie McGrath) from
Merlin; a few people seemed to like an Irish-American in a fireman's uniform, voting for
Rescue Me's Tommy Gavin; and there was mild love for irascible bookseller Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) from
Black Books.
6. Father Jack, Jimmy McNulty, Miles O'Brien – 4.76% What a cross-section of Irishmen! The swearing, disgusting sexist Father Jack (Frank Kelly) from
Father Ted; the dependable Baltmore cop Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) from
The Wire; and
Star Trek's tetchy engineer Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney.)
I didn't think there would be a big response for Angel (David Boreanaz), as I've never been struck by the Irishness of the character. Maybe the Joss Whedonites grabbed the poll?
A timely vote for Irish vampire Mitchell (Aidan Turner), who I'm sure causes plenty of swooning around the land whenever
Being Human's on. The fact he's a vampire will only add to his teenage appeal.
3. Father Dougal & Nathan Young – 11.9% Another
Father Ted alum in the childlike Father Dougal (Ardal O'Hanlon), joined by the motormouthed teen delinquent Nathan (Robert Sheehan) from
Misfits. The fact Nathan wasn't actually part of my list of possibilities makes his third-place ranking even more impressive.
2. Roy Trenneman – 16.67% He's the lazy IT technician from
The IT Crowd, and many of you really believe Roy (Chris O'Dowd) represents all that's great about Ireland. I won't argue.
A deserved win for Father Ted Crilly (the late Dermot Morgan), who provided us with many laughs in the '90s over three series of popular Anglo-Irish sitcom
Father Ted. The real winner of this poll is writer Graham Linehan, who wrote for
four characters in the top 6.
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