Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with These Five Irish Comics Characters

If you’ve seen your friends and co-workers flaunting green clothes this morning, you’ve probably realized that today is St. Patrick’s Day.St. Patrick’s Day commemorates the feast day of St. Patrick, the legendary bishop who brought Christianity to the shores of the Emerald Isle.The Irish and those of Irish descent celebrate today with revelry and parades, along with drinking of plenty of green beer.

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, here’s five of our favorite Irish comic book characters:

Banshee

Ireland’s most famous mutant, Banshee is a longtime friend and ally to the X-Men with the ability to create powerful “sonic screams” that allow him to fly and attack opponents.  After dropping out of Interpol, Banshee first met the X-Men as an unwilling member of the Factor Three terrorist organization, but later helped the mutants take down his former teammates. Banshee later joined the “All New, All Different” version of the X-Men and rescued the original team from the living island Krakoa.  He remained with the X-Men until a mission left his vocal cords severely damaged and went into semi-retirement.  Banshee later taught a generation of new mutants alongside Emma Frost and died attempting to save a plane from Cyclops and Havok’s evil (and secret) brother Vulcan.  Recently, the Apocalypse Twins resurrected Banshee as one of their Horsemen, although the Avengers captured him with the hopes of eventually rehabilitating him. 

Silver Banshee

Since the banshee is an ancient Irish legend, it makes sense that DC would have a banshee of their own.  The Silver Banhsee is a DC supervillain who gained her powers from an occult ritual gone horribly wrong. Wielding supernatural screaming abilities as well as the ability to kill a victim instantly by stating their “true” name, the Silver Banshee fought Superman several times before entering into a recurring rivalry with Supergirl.  In the New 52, the Silver Banshee is an Irish girl named Siobhan Smythe who befriended Supergirl by revealing she can speak in any language (including Kryptonian) and transforms into the Silver Banshee when threatened.  Smythe recently appeared on the Supergirl television show as a rival to Kara at CatGo, although she’s yet to appear in her supervillain alter ego. 

Daredevil

Daredevil isn’t from Ireland, but his Irish roots are a central facet of the superhero’s personality and character.  As an Irish-American Catholic growing up in New York City, Matt Murdock grew up with a strong sense of right and wrong as well as the ever-present Catholic guilt that haunts every fictional Catholic proto-superhero. Matt’s father was a gambling alcoholic boxer (which is  every Irish-American stereotype wrapped up into one) who died after refusing to throw a boxing match for money.  Matthew’s Catholic guilt pushed him to become the vigilante Daredevil, although he regularly attends confession at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to atone for his violent and brutal methods.  

Shamrock

Probably the most stereotypical Irish superhero in comics, Shamrock is a green-clad superheroine who literally has the “Luck of the Irish”.  Commanding an army of war victims turned poltergeists, Shamrock can manipulate probabilities in her favor.  Shamrock first appeared in Contest of Champions as a member of Death’s team and made periodic appearances in different Marvel comics throughout the 1990s.  Following a lengthy absence, she reappeared in Girls Comics, having retired from superheroics after losing her powers and becoming a hairdresser instead. 

Cassidy

One of Jesse Custer’s main companions throughout his journeys in Preacher is Cassidy, a hard drinking, drug addicted vampire. After fleeing to the United States in the early 20th century, Cassidy inadvertently leaves a trail of bodies and ex-lovers while struggling with his own addictions to blood and drugs. Meeting Jesse and Tulip shortly after Jesse merged with Genesis, Cassidy and Jesse became close friends, and the vampire fell in love with Jesse’s ex-girlfriend Tulip.  While Cassidy’s friendship had disastrous consequences for both Jesse and Tulip, he proved his loyalty when he made a secret bargain that saved Jesse and himself from death in Preacher‘s finale.