The Troubles

Derry Girls’ blackboard scene is the TV moment of 2019

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LIsa McGee brilliantly selected her slurs and generalisations about Northern religions

It’s time for the Derry Girls backlash. I’m here to wonder why this overrated show is getting such coverage in (wait for it, wait for it) The Paper of Record. The language! The bad manners!

Only joking.

Madonna once said she couldn’t love anybody who didn’t admire the paintings of Frida Kahlo. I feel the same way about curry, Alastair Sim and Lisa McGee’s sitcom.

The opening episode of the second series was excellent throughout, but one scene in particular managed the extraordinary feat of acquiring iconic status before the final credits had rolled.

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Derry Girls discuss Brexit and “The Troubles”

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Channel 4’s Derry Girls is easily one of the best sitcoms to hit British television in a long while. It mixes up an all-female spin on The Inbetweeners and some pitch perfect 90s nostalgia, with a poignant and realistic portrayal of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Derry Girls stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Erin, and actually grew up in Derry; Nicola Coughlan and Louisa Harland, who play Clare and Orla respectively and are both from south of the border; and Englishmen Dylan Llewellyn, who portrays James.

Derry Girls creator explains the truly powerful finale for a brilliant first series

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A typically brilliant episode with a finale that packed an emotional punch, people will be talking about the final episode of Derry Girls for some time yet.

It was with a touch of sadness that the many fans of Derry Girls watched the final episode of the first season of the show last night, knowing that it’s going to be some time before it returns to our screens.
A typically brilliant episode with a finale that packed an emotional punch, however, will ensure that it will be talked about for some time yet.
If you haven’t seen it yet, spoilers are about to follow so go away and watch it hereand come back later.
If you did catch it, you’ll have seen the final episode reach a conclusion with a juxtaposition of the type of scene, full of fun, that has made the series such a great watch so far with a scene that brings home the devastating impact of The Troubles at the time the series was set.
While Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle and James dance gleefully around the school hall, the Quinn family gather around the TV to listen to the news of a fatal bombing, a scene made all the more poignant when Granda Joe places a hand on the shoulder of Da Gerry in spite of their complicated relationship
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In another notable touch, ‘Dreams’ by The Cranberries plays out in the background during the final scene, nearly a month on from the death of Dolores O’Riordan in January.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee said that the reference to the bombing was not based on a specific incident, although she did mention the tragic Omagh bombing in 1998 when expressing the need to highlight the serious nature of The Troubles amidst nods to more mundane aspects of life in Derry at the time.
“I thought if I’m going to do this show and show this side of things, I have to at some point show that there were times when it floored you,” McGee said.
“I thought, I’ll probably do that at the end because it wasn’t a joke either.
“I had a nod to that, there were lots of mundane bomb scares and things like Orange Order parades, where you had to change how you might go about your journey.

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‘I’m not British, I’m Britirish’

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A Northern writer’s view on Brexit, borders and bars

Rosemary Jenkinson | IRISH TIMES

Brexit is manna from heaven to a satirical writer and I’ve had great fun with it in plays like Michelle and Arlene. On the serious side though, it’s thrown up huge uncertainty over the future of the Irish Border.

I grew up a Protestant in Belfast with my mum, dad and brother, but we often travelled across the border. We spent summers with my cousins on Achill Island as my Aunt Moira was a Southern Irish Catholic and loved it there. Once, when we went on holiday to Brittany, we were asked by a Breton where we were from. I expected Dad to say Northern Ireland, but he said Ireland instead which met with delight. It was at that moment I understood that leaving the “Northern” out could be socially advantageous.

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