Is ‘Derry Girls’ Based on a True Story?

Since the release of Derry Girls Season 3 in the U.S. earlier this month, fans have been struggling to let go of the series as there unfortunately won’t be a Season 4. This past season was full of surprises, wrapping up with cameos from both Liam Neeson and Chelsea Clinton. But even with all that, it’s still tragic for viewers to no longer see the faces of Clare, Erin, Orla, Michelle and James on their TV screens. In an interview with The New York Times earlier this month, creator Lisa McGee described how she was sad to say goodbye to the show as she was, “connected to those characters in a way that I think is probably not entirely healthy.”

But just how connected was the creator? Though she grew up in the time period, the characters are fictional. Still, it’s worth noting that McGee took inspiration from her own life. Read on to find out just what was true — and what was not.

The Events of Derry Girls:

Derry Girls takes place in Londonderry, Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a decades long conflict in which Protestants were assumed to be for Ireland staying within the UK, whereas Catholics wanted a united Ireland. The show and the conflict ends around the time of the Good Friday agreement, which took place in the late ’90s. This was a real conflict and McGee did live through it.

Initially, McGee did not want to write a story about her life, but she eventually gave in after talking to her executive producer. Some of the stories are loosely based on her own life as McGee did in fact go to an all-girls Catholic school. And like the protagonist Erin, McGee wanted to be a writer. She has described how “ridiculous” her group of friends were and how boring the troubles were to live through, which definitely translated onto the TV show. One such ridiculous story that did happen to McGee was when she and her friends skipped class to go to a concert and were caught when a photo of one of the group was taken and put on the front page of the paper.

“I’ll never forget that story because of how delighted my friend was in that photograph compared to the trouble she got in. It was just the perfect contrast,” she told The New York Times in an interview. This is the humor of Derry Girls; the excitement of growing up and going on adventures versus the difficulties and tribulations of the same event.

In another New York Times story, McGee mentioned how when she was 13, she actually wrote a letter to Chelsea Clinton, though she never got a response. Not only did this make it into the script, as the group of friends do end up writing to the first daughter, but Clinton made a cameo. There are two sides of every coin, and McGee’s side was filled with hilarity amid the highs and lows of the Troubles.

The Characters of Derry Girls:

As already mentioned, McGee based much of the show on true stories of herself and the people she grew up with. In an interview with iNews, she described what it was like to write the character of Erin, who is based on her. “She’s a dreamer, I was a dreamer. I just lived in my own little bubble. That ambition she has to be a writer without really doing the graft – I certainly thought it was just going to happen for me,” she said.

Other characters are also based on real people. In an interview with British Comedy Guide, Nicola Coughlan said that she met the actual person for whom her character of Clare is based off of.

“I think Lisa McGee got a call that said ‘Am I that wee crying one? The one that’s whingeing all the time?’ So, she wasn’t absolutely thrilled at the beginning. And apparently, she went into work the day after the first episode aired, and all her friends were like ‘You’re Clare.’”

Aside from Clare, Uncle Colm is another character that is inspired by a real person. Asked about it in an interview with NPR, McGee said, “A lot of people seem to – a lot of Irish people, I know we seem to have that person in their family, and they want to talk about him, usually.”

The characters now appear to have their own legacy with a mural of them in the town of Londonderry that McGee sees when she visits home. So although you can’t travel to Derry to see them, you can always rewatch the show, which is available to stream on Netflix or Channel 4.