Murphyville

Murphyville is the main urban settlement on Emerald Isle (formerly Ireland), spanning the south-east coast. It is independent to Brit-Cit but highly 'influenced' by it. Relations between the two states had calmed from historical norms until the late 2130s, and the north of the island is once again under Emerald Isle rule. The main export was entertainment for decades.

There were 20 million inhabitants on the island in 2113. Many would travel abroad, leading to the saying "when you're Irish, no matter where you end up, you bump into someone from home."

Judge-Sergeant Charlie Joyce is one of the more famous Judges from the city. His son Fintan Joyce went into service and since emigrated to Mega-City One.

Description

For the locals

Murphyville is large by modern standards but lacks the tall starscraper blocks of most megacities. In lifestyle and layout, it's similar to modern-day Dublin - but with much greater urban development, as St Stephen's Green was reduced to fifteen blades of grass and a shrub called Kevin until Dredd ran over it in 2113. Smaller rural hab-villages exist away from the city but were mostly used by tourists in the 2110s.

By the 2130s, it had a Murphyville Spaceport (Spásfort Bhaile Átha Cliath) that had replaced the old Murphyville International Airport. Based on the bilingual name, Baile Átha Cliath - "town of the hurdled ford" - switched from being the modern Irish name of Dublin to the modern Irish name of its resulting megacity.

Joyce asked Dredd if a perp was a "mental fella", meaning psi.

For the tourists

The bulk of stories were written by Belfast born Garth Ennis, who used it as a savage parody of Ireland and the stereotypes around it. Dubliner Michael Carroll picked it up in the 2010s and deliberately played down parts of the stereotyping.

History

Ireland's potato crops died out in 2052. For the sake of the tourist trade, they secretly mashed up rice to look like potatoes.

It remained neutral during the Atomic Wars of 2070 but that didn't protect it from extensive radiation damage. Enough of Irish civilisation survived that a tourist boat, the Saint Joshua, continued to travel the coast, and a political class still existed.

In 2071, Brit-Cit Covert Ops tried to assassinate a pro-unification politician, Aileen Brady, to hold onto Northern Ireland; the operation was botched and caused the sinking of the St Joshua. Unwilling to let the civilians onboard drown, Covert Ops (masquerading as Coast Guard) saved 78 of the boat's passengers and crew. This was one of the key events that ended Emerald Isle and Brit-Cit's historical animosity, and a covert group in the Isle of Man was charged with keeping the real events secret.

Judge-Sergeant Joyce welcomes Dredd to Murphyville

The island was only reclaimed from radiation damage in 2095 due to Brit-Cit aid and in return, Brit corporations have a major hold on the Isle's government. The country was turned into a gigantic theme park based around stereotypes of traditional Irish life. Stereotyped rural villages like the Charles Haughey Memorial Village were set up in the countryside, catering for the tourists (and only serving potatoes). Insulting promotional ads were fronted by a cartoon leprechaun called Seamus O'Tuber. Murphyville itself became increasingly urbanised but sometimes bit off more than it can chew: the Black Atlantic tunnel to the island ends in the Atlantic Bridge as they ran out of cash to complete the tunnel itself

At some point, the Emerald Isle Militia became a semi-formal Judge force. They created the spud gun at a time when they were unable to afford bullets and tried using the fake potatoes instead.

The famous Judge Joyce attained the rank of Judge-Sergeant in 2110.

SPUD GUN TO CHIPS!

Discontent with patronising tourists and the need to cater to them grew. Young nationalists had formed the Sons of Erin terror group in the 2110s. Many of the Judges sympathised and the Sons rarely did anything serious, until Sons leader Frank Neeson hired a mob blitzer called Donny Staples (mistaking him for a war veteran) to help them in 2113. They first executed the ambassador to Mega-City One, then were steered by Staples into the "Bloody Monday Morn" massacre on May 12: hitting Murphyville International Airport, Riverside Travel Centre, Justice Central Station, Telemurph, the docks, and various hab villages and spudatoriums. A visiting Dredd helped Joyce and the Judge Militia wipe out the Sons of Erin but the tourist trade was still crippled.

Zombies rise at Ireland's graveyards

In 2114, Judge-Sergeant Joyce was having lunch when he discovered human eyes and teeth staring back at him from his pie. An investigation found someone had been placing human remains in all Fingal Pie delivers - that someone turning out to be a gang of Trinity College medical students who thought it was a laugh. Joyce disagreed and sentenced them to twenty years in Kilmainham.

2114 was also the year that Murphyville finally signed the Judicial Charter with Mega-City One after years of diplomatic wrangling.

More significantly that year, Murphyville faced zombie attacks on Judgement Day. Murphyville still had graveyards rather than resyk and zombies poured out of them, with airstrikes on graves written off as the Church would never buy it. Chief Judge Maginty was present at the Hondo conference on the crisis.

Murphyville was one of the many megacities trying to get the head of Judge Eckhart in 2117. Judge Patrick Wilde was actually a double agent for Vatican City but failed to secure the head.

At some point in the 2120s, Charlie Joyce found footage that revealed the St Joshua coverup and was murdered by elements of Justice Department, on orders from "Douglas" (capital of the Isle of Man). The coverup made Joyce out to be drunk on duty, which destroyed his reputation as various cases he'd solved were subject to legal appeal. Judge-Inspector Stephen McGann was involved in this.

In 2126, the city was under Chief Judge Krilly. He visited Mega-City One for the Global Justice Summit and got into a fight with Euro-City's Chief Judge Boltstern (who dismissed him and city as irrelevant unless they wanted to hear about potatoes) when he came to the defence of an Oz Judge.

After Chaos Day, an unknown number of Irish Judges (including Joyce's son Fintan Joyce) were sent to Mega-City One to replenish its numbers.

Judicial shootout at the Spaceport

In 2137, McGann was Chief Judge, with Deputy Chief Judge Grainne Walsh. Fintan Joyce was targeted for assassination to stop him learning his father's secrets (under the mistaken belief Charlie Joyce had made a copy of the footage) and when he and Dredd went to Murphyville to investigate, they were targeted by a judicial black ops squad. When this was failed, McGann was killed so Murphyville Judges (with Brit-Cit aid) would have a pretext to arrest the MC-1 Judges and have them die "resisting arrest". After a battle at the Murphyville Spaceport, Walsh called off the operation due to the loss of Judges and revealed the conspiracy. To prevent further trouble, a Murphyville/Brit-Cit raid was launched on the Isle of Man. The full events were obscured, but the St Joshua conspiracy had come out; both city-states blamed each other and tensions escalated between them. Tourists in Murphyville were attacked.

One of Fintan Joyce's local peers, Barney, was backpacking in Oz when he decided to make his way to the Gyre, a storm-wracked floating mass of jetsam in the Black Atlantic. He became a minor henchmen for the mutant warlord Krait, and was forced to inform Joyce on how to infiltrate Krait's operation.

In 2138, the Emerald Isle and Brit-Cit decided to make Dredd and Joyce into a shared enemy to reduce tension, and Brit-Cit demanded Dredd be extradited for the shooting. However, part of the New Old Bailey wanted to bring the Emerald Isle to heel and a faction under Senior Judge Mayhew, including members of Intelligence, had cut a deal with Texas City to remove Dredd in order for a free hand in doing this. When Fintan Joyce was extradited in Dredd's place, Mayhew's groups staged a fake paramilitary raid to 'rescue' Joyce and later set up fake 'terrorist' attacks to give a cause belli to strike the Emerald Isle. This plot was exposed and Brit-Cit disavowed Mayhew's group. (What helped in this is that Mayhew's agents were incapable of faking a convincing Irish accent)

Judges

Interior of Justice Central, with Deputy Chief Judge Walsh

Side-on view of Fintan Joyce

The Judge Militia used to be poor, hence the need for the spud gun, and their bikes were still less advanced than the Lawmaster by 2114. They were more like the traditional Garda than most Judges, rarely using the same level of violence and being more integrated in the local community; Judges were allowed to drink, even on duty, and can have families. Bloody Monday Morn was a severe shock to the Militia.

The uniforms are highly distinctive, with the top being a "trenchcoat" rather than the biker leathers of most forces. The green and white colouring (with orange bits) is based around the Irish flag. Large sidearms were in use by the 2110s (apparently without the multiple rounds of other Judge forces).

The force operates out of Justice Central Station while criminals are locked up in Kilmainham Iso-cubes. Central has a wall of photos of Judges who died on duty.

Under the Judicial Charter, Murphyville Judges can pursue criminals to Mega-City One and receive assistance, and vice versa.

Mongoose RPG

The early 2000s Mongoose RPG added extra details for games set in the Emerald Isle:

Emerald Isle RPG map

• There is still a Northern Ireland (called Northern Eire) until 2070, when the radiation hits

• The Dublin-grown megacity was originally called Bhaile Átha Cliath and was lucky enough to escape the worst of the fallout. The Irish Assembly was unable to afford decontaminating the island and allowed FunRaiser Enterprises to buy up everything. After that, the city was renamed Murphyville.

• Emerald Isle and FunRaiser requested Brit-Cit Special Branch aid in eradicating the Sons of Eire. Other anti-tourism terrorists have risen - the New Finians, the Daughters of Eire, the O'Donnell Martyrs, the Gaelic Brigade, and the Wilde Oscars (who use bombs to get recognition for Irish literary achievements) - but tourism, while diminished, has slowly improved. The Judges constantly monitor the Green Dolphin, the Sons' old haunt, for other terrorists.

• The theme park is split into Celtworld, a tri-d sensurround show where you can be part of the mythical heroes of ancient Ireland; the hab-villages, stereotyped reconstructions of the early 20th century where actors are forced to 'play along'; Leprechaun Valley, a fairytale land for juves where leprechauns lead you through candy-laden trees; the Charles Haughey Memorial Village, where you can watch a reconstruction of the Judge's raid on the Sons of Eire; and the Belfast Bust-Up, where you can roleplay as the IRA or UVF in battle ("for an extra fee it is possible to taske part in the punishment shootings"). In 2117, the O'Donnell Martyrs snuck into the Belfast Bust-Up and put live ammo in all the guns.

• The Judge Militia share a lot of Brit-Cit's operational processes. They're infamously crap by Judge standards though. While the Emerald Isle has signed up to the Judicial Accord (meaning "Charter" from Ennis's strips) that's meant to boost training standards, no cadet has yet completed the two year course. They're not intended to be anything more than park guards for the most part (there's also no defence force), reliant on Brit-Cit in severe situations, and the Chief Judge is ultimately answerable to FunRaiser and the Council of Recreation and Entertainment. However, the average Judge on patrol soon gets 'on the job training' and becomes adept at resolving problems, handling antisocial behaviour, and becoming a trusted face for the citizens.

• A Judge's standard baton gun fires only non-lethal plasteen rounds. The St Padraig Lawmaster ("Pats") bike is highly unreliable. It used to only use non-lethal weapons but was retrofitted with stump guns after Judgement Day

• Outside of terrorism, there is little in the way of violent crime. There are a few mobs involved in smuggling. The terrorists are greatly feared, with locals not daring to report the one next door for fear of retaliation.

• The Emerald Isle has a president ("Connor O'Connor"), residing in Phoenix Park District

• The Atlantic Bridge is connected to Cork Sector, where highly dedicated Judges keep an eye out for smugglers - despite their efforts, the wider Murphyville Docks are too large for the small Judge militia to patrol and are notoriously easy to move dodgy goods through. Convict workers have to keep the bridge coated with acid resistant paint. The Hook Head in Cork Sector processes the basking soggies for food (and also any informant that the mobs catch).

• Dublin Castle is now an expensive theme restaurant

• The chief religion is based out of a simple church called the Eaglais, home to the Archbishop of the Isles, a religious university, and a free hospital. The Judges can only enter with clerical permission, causing crims to seek sanctuary there, and have also failed to get stronger security measures after the Archbishop was almost assassinated in 2122.

• Telemurph tries to produce 600 channels of media with a budget barely fit for one channel