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Unfortunately for me, the story of the Joneses in Northern Ireland is awkward, unglamorous, and short.
My grandmother eventually packed up and moved, as did most of her children.
(AnUndertonesupposedly lives in the familys old house.)
Its hardlyWild Mountain Thyme,is it?
Still, Derry remains the closest thing my father has to a hometown.
Now, the rest of the world seems to have caught my fascination.
The culture industry, too, has turned its eyes toward Ulster.
Besides Brexit, Trump, andGame of Thrones, nothing gets the newsfeed popping likeDerry Girls.
I first spoke to Mary, a Derry girl through and through.
The Troubles began when Mary was in her early teens.
Things got very out of hand.
You would get sprayed with tear gas.
Eventually, they became friends.
We were running with Protestant people all the time, she said.
It was nothing to us.
Many reviews ofDerry Girlsspotlight the skillful way it depicts life amid the bombs and barricades.
Thats Marys favorite part of the show, too.
Every time the IRA blew up the checkpoint, they blew up the store as well.
(The joke in Derry was, Buy now while shops last.)
Things like that happened all the time, Mary said.
You just kind of rolled with it.
There was nothing else you could do.
It made people maybe a wee bit reckless.
They were in a hurry to have their life right now dont wait.
You would expect that everything would be suspended and people would do nothing.
But it was the opposite.
People got into life, really took it by the throat.
They were like from another planet entirely, Mary said.
However, this difference held a little bit of allure, too.
That was so glamorous to me when I was 17.
To Rose, that rings absolutely true.
As a teenager, you dont really get what it means, she said.
Its not a hundred percent real for you.
But the things they thought were surreal in England were not surreal in Northern Ireland.
People in England thought those things were totally silly and exaggerated for effect, she said.
Those things were true.
Still, certain aspects of teen life transcended those boundaries especially the efforts to transcend those boundaries.
They thought that was going to solve everything.
As inDerry Girls, kids spent basically the whole time talking to the people they already knew.
Neither Rose nor Mary considersDerry Girlsa perfect show.
I didnt know anyone would actually wear that, she said.
To me, that was not a policeman.
All police guys wore flak jackets and carried machine guns.
(She eventually let the guy do his job.)
Marys story is darker.
All of Derry was thrilled.
They were welcomed and brought into houses for a cup of tea and all that, she said.
But after a couple of months, the blush went off that rose.
Rather than neutral overseers, the troops were soon considered another symbol of Protestant domination.
She had been tarred and feathered.
How does a young person grow up in the middle of that craziness?
Make a TV show, thats one way to deal with it.
