Derry Girls is also interesting in its portrayal of fathers and father figures although we only see Erin’s and Claire’s fathers on the show. Unlike in many sitcoms, in which fathers are usually depicted as stupid, incompetent, selfish, crude or all the above, Gerry, Erin’s father, is often the most sensible member of the adult characters, who make up their own ‘gang’ alongside the main teenage characters. This group is usually the focus of the show’s subplots and consists of Erin’s parents Gerry and Mary, her Aunt Sarah and her grandfather Joe. In this group, Gerry is usually the voice of reason and often gets ridiculed and shouted down by the others, particularly his father-in-law Joe who has an intense dislike for Gerry.

Although Gerry has shades of the ‘henpecked husband’ comic stereotype – Mary is usually the more dominant parent towards Erin, reflecting the so-called ‘mammy culture’ prominent in Derry, or as Erin puts it in one episode: “Da’s (Dads) are in the pocket of Ma’s (Mums)” – Gerry is usually able to stand up for himself and Mary often tries to defend him from her father.

In Series 2 episode 3, the girls and James want to go to see the 90s boy band Take That in Belfast but are forbidden from going because there is an escaped polar bear on the loose (yes really). The girls try to talk Mary into letting them go (as Orla points out, the polar bear wouldn’t be able to get a ticket to the concert – “they sold out months ago!”) but Mary refuses. While Mary, Joe and Sarah are worried about the polar bear, Gerry believes their fear is overblown:

Gerry: The concert’s nowhere near the zoo.

Joe: But he’s not in the zoo anymore, is he, Simple Simon? He’s sauntering around Belfast, without a care in the world!

Sarah: Aye, keep up Gerry!

Gerry: What I’m saying is that it would be quite a lot of ground for him to cover.

Mary: They’re quick on their feet when they want to be, love.

The girls (and James) manage to get to the Belfast concert alone by tricking their mothers into thinking they are going to each other’s houses. The mothers realise at the end of the episode what their children have done and vow to punish them if they can get proof the girls have gone to the concert. Gerry, watching TV in the living room, sees his daughter and her friends during news coverage of the concert and just laughs quietly, implying he never tells his wife and the other mothers what he’s seen and is given a rare ‘win’ in the series.

James, like Gerry, performs a similar function in the main group of characters in that he is a bit of a punching bag for the others – particularly his cousin Michelle – but who often acts as a voice of reason as well. In Series 1 episode 2, Michelle accidentally sets some curtains on fire and tries to put out the fire by pouring alcohol on it! Although Erin points out the stupidity of this, it is James who thinks about getting a fire extinguisher to put it out. However, unlike, Gerry, James is less willing to stand up for himself possibly because he is more of a fish out of water having grown up in London rather than Derry. James nearly returns to London when his mother comes to see him and the girls are visibly upset at the news showing their fondness for him. Michelle, despite constantly berating James, convinces him to stay and tells him he’s a ‘Derry girl’ now.

Erin’s and Orla’s grandad Joe is also portrayed as a respected father figure. He is often seen looking after Erin’s baby sister and is looked up to by his granddaughters and daughters. An episode in the second series shows the girls attending a 1950s style American prom at their school and, as it’s an all-girls school, they have to invite a boy to attend the prom. Orla, takes her grandad Joe and says: “everyone kept saying you had to take a fella you really like and he’s the fella I like the most.”

Although Joe is regularly rude and hostile towards his son-in-law Gerry, which may mean he comes across to some viewers as an unlikeable bully, it is implied that Joe likes Gerry more than he lets on. A scene in the last episode of the first series shows the adults solemnly watching news on TV of a bomb attack. Joe comes in behind Gerry and puts his hand on Gerry’s shoulder – a nice piece of subtlety which is more effective than if Joe was shown openly expressing any affection towards him. One episode in the first series suggests that Joe feels competitive towards Gerry over who is the ‘man’ in the family of mainly women which might explain some of his belligerence towards his son-in-law.

In the final episode, which is set during the Good Friday agreement, Erin asks her grandad for advice on how to vote in the referendum on the agreement (this vote again is something I didn’t realise happened until I watched this show) as she is undecided. Erin asks Joe what if it’s doesn’t work and Joe responds:

“And what if it does? What if no one else has to die? What if all this becomes a ghost story you’ll tell your wains one day? Hmm? A ghost story they’ll hardly believe.”

The clip can be watched here.

Joe comes across here as a wise old patriarch whose advice Erin presumably takes. This is likely reflected in Lisa McGee’s own feelings of the Good Friday agreement – that it was ultimately a good thing. Columnists such as Peter Hitchens however, have viewed the agreement as an act of capitulation and surrender to the IRA on the part of the British as he explains here. As I said, I don’t enough about the Troubles to have a strong position either way but I can see both sides of this argument.

I was still a child when the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998 which effectively ended the Troubles (although I only found out recently that the Omagh bombing occurred afterwards) so I don’t remember hearing about the conflict in Northern Ireland in the news and only experienced it in retrospect from lessons in school and college – this included having to watch the film Bloody Sunday in different classes on no less than 3 occasions! 

Other male characters on the show include Erin’s Great Uncle (and Joe’s brother) Colm, the young “down with the kids” priest Father Peter, cousin Eamonn (mentioned previously) and the unhinged corner shop keeper Dennis. Rather than being laughed at for being men, these male characters are funny because of their individual personalities. Uncle Colm, for example, is a man so boring that he makes a dramatic story about some IRA men who ambush him in his own home, tie him to a radiator and steal his van sound tedious to his listeners. This is also another example of the show’s contrasting the mundane with the dramatic as described in the first part.

Having looked at Lisa McGee’s Twitter/X page, she has all the ‘right on’ politics you would expect from a TV writer – i.e. feminist, pro-EU, etc. – and she appears to be friendly with certain establishment political figures such as Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton which led to a rather pointless cameo by Chelsea Clinton in the final episode (a reference to a previous episode set during Bill Clinton’s visit to Derry in 1995). That being said, McGee’s portrayal of male and female characters suggests to me that she likes at least some men and doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder about women’s issues.

McGee’s writing reminds me a little bit of that of John Sullivan, the writer of the classic sitcom Only Fools and Horses in that both shows feature memorable and larger-than-life characters who you can imagine being real people – and are no doubt based on real people – and who are specific to their respective locations of Derry and London. In other words, you cannot picture these characters existing in a different setting to the one they inhabit.

I expect teenagers in the future will be shown Derry Girls during lessons about the Troubles much like I had to watch Bloody Sunday although they may have a better time watching a sitcom than I did watching that particular film. I think the show will be remembered in years to come much like Father Ted still has a loyal cult following partly because Derry Girls already takes place in the past so will not be considered dated.

The show also does a good job of portraying female friendships without it coming across as solidarity against oppressive men unlike other films/TV shows I’ve come across which focus on women. This is probably because Northern Irish women (and men) had more important things to worry about such as whether they or their loved ones could be killed in a bomb attack rather than trivial feminist concerns like if there were enough women fighting in the IRA or British Army.

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