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. The main export is entertainment.

There were 20 million inhabitants on the island in 2113.

Judge-Sergeant Charlie Joyce is one of the more famous Judges from the city.

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Description Edit

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.

Joyce asked Dredd if a perp was a "mental fella", meaning psi - implying psis don't exist on the Emerald Isle.

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.

History Edit

Ireland's potato crops died out in 2052. For the sake of the tourist trade, they secretly mashed up rice to look like potatoes.[1]

It remained neutral during the Atomic Wars of 2070 but that didn't protect it from extensive radiation damage. [2] 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. [3]

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.[4] 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.

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. [5]

In 2114, Judge-Sergeant Joyce uncovered human body parts in Fingal Pie Factory pies. This turned out to be a gang of Trinity College medical students who thought it was a laugh to smuggle human bodies into food. [6] 2114 was also the year that Murphyville finally signed the Judicial Charter with Mega-City One after years of diplomatic wrangling. [7]

In the same 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.[8]

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.[9]

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.[10]

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.

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. [11]

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. [12])





Judges Edit

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.

References Edit