The Irish Cracker (TIC) was one of the pseudonyms used by Derek Hyland of Midleton, near Cork. He was also known as TIAF (The Irish Amstrad Fanatic), The Invisible Coder and Highlander. He was a member of The Firm and BENG.
TIC was, however, a swapper rather than actually being a cracker. He ran a PD library called Amsof PD. He also wrote for the fanzines Amstrad Fun and CPC Forever. An inimitable writing style, and harsh views on British CPC users, led to an on-going feud with the writers of the BTL fanzine, who once reprinted one of his particularly vituperative and impenetrable swap-letters in full.
His demo releases were the 6am Eternal demo, co-written with Pawn (Mark McCormick), and Intox II, co-written with Keith Woods.
When he moved onto the PC, Derek became known as Joshua of Hades.