He's Irish, or Scottish, or something similar. His accent is unmistakable. What's up with that? How'd he get to
post-apocalyptic D.C.? I've always justified it by saying he was a big traveler, but that's kind of a crappy explanation.
Same goes for the russian guy Dukov, who apparently crossed thousands of irradiated miles to sit in some dump
and screw two women and drink beer. Does anybody else find these things a little ridiculous?

Well Herbert Dashwood said he came to America from Ireland with his dad as a kid.

I say this everytime a topic about him or Tenpenny comes up. It's total crap that we didn't get an interesting story about how and why they came to America. What was their overseas home town like before they left.

But all we got was some mention about Ireland for Colin and a Dev interview saying Tenpenny was from the UK.

Bethesda svcks at writing and creating characters with interesting backstories.

To this day, in the Appalachian mountains, you can find people who have been here for generations, and they still have accents. Irish, German, you name it. Kind of depends on what the people around you sound like, and you just emulate them.

Agreed but there is mention from a character that Colin came to America as a Kid and the Devs of Fallout 3 have said that Tenpenny is from the UK.

"uh wizerd did it"
-Bethesda

I wonder if Ireland and the UK are worse off then the US if people are emigrating. I imagine nuclear fallout isn't good for potatoes....

His accent his nowhere near Irish or scottish.
If it was, you would not be able to understand what he's saying.

Plus if he was irish, he'd greet you with "Howya' boss! Any craic?"

But then again, the Chinese spoken by the Chinese remnants is nowhere near chinese.

Excuse my typos. Here are some better backstories for these fellows.

Tenpenny is an android, among the first. His AI was designed after the personality of a ghoulified fratboy hiding in the Institute when it was conquered by the Qingdom of Quebec, a technologically advanced Canadian nation.

Moriarity's grandparents were from Vault 58, south of Point Lookout. They worshipped a [censored] comic badly faking an Irish accent, who, as per experiment, was the only entertainment the Vault could have. Although failure was expected, the Vault Dwellers created a small city named after the comedian. However, the cult-like worship of his corny jokes found many Dwellers their deaths at the hands of the unamused Rotten Eyes tribals. Moriarity, one of the few socially adept people in the city, headed out to find his fortune, sick of his kinsmen's jomes. He found it first at Paradise Falls, and again in Megaton. Eventually, he returned to his city and was killed by the Rotten Eyes' leader, Zakkaslalsumectesh, who had successfully killed every former Vault 58 dweller besides him.

Dukov? He saw a map of the world one day and wanted to see what the rest of it was like, starting with America. In the New World, it was surprisingly easy to do, for the massive shock on the Earth had fused, among other landmassrs, Alaska and Asia together. He toured America, from Flagstaff to Shady Sands, from Quebec in Canada to Gilanueva in Baja, to the Foreverglades to Mesa Verde, even to the Oil Rig and the Empire Concrete Jungle. Nearly every woman he met he got pregnant, nearly every [censored] he saw he made into a thick red paste, and every glass of booze he saw he downed. One day, he realized he had seen his share of the world;, and decided to live out a few more decades in America before going back to his village in Siberia. However, this was a fatal mistake, for the Lone Wanderer had a bullet with his name on it.

Also Colonel Autumn from Fallout 3 has an aristocratic southern accent, despite his family never having lived in the regions which would have that accent for 200+ years.

Not that this is particularly realistic though, but its an in-game example.

There was also the guy in Fallout (Loxely) that was simply faking a british accent.

I think these games are so complex and there's so many people working on them, that there's probably going to be a lot of little details that fall through the cracks. They probably figure somebody with an accent just sounds cool, and most people won't question it.

Dukov is a Man among Men.

This is what i'm thinking.

No, nomads have covered vast distances of thousands of years and if they're not in the company of foreigners often they can retain their accents for many generations. So it's entirely possible for Moriarty's, Dukov's etc's parents and/or grandparents to have crossed the ocean on what ever boats and kept their accents. Tenpenny I believe is English. Why is there no Scots, crazy Scots at that

Also he's Irish - if it was unmistakable how could you mistake it for Scottish.