The Real Derry: Jamie-Lee O'Donnell

# Welcome to Jamie-Lee's documentary, documentary

# With Jamie-Lee on Derry #

Cheers. My name is Jamie-Lee O'Donnell.

# Do-da-da-do... And you might know me from the comedy series Derry Girls.

Motherfuckers!

Motherfucker. It's my new thing.

In the show, my character Michelle Mallon is a foul-mouthed schoolgirl

determined to live her best life, despite growing up in a war zone.

Michelle, he's a soldier. Ach, some of them are rides.

You're a fucking embarrassment!

LOUD BLAST

In real life, I'm nothing like Michelle, of course.

Listen! I'm going up the fucking hill.

I'm gonna ask him a couple of questions. SHE LAUGHS

I'm an Irish woman, an Irish working-class woman, and I'm very proud of that.

I'm a Derry girl born and bred, and no matter where I am, Derry is home.

I've always wanted to show people how amazing it is. Just like a wee love letter to Derry.

But nearly 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement

marked the start of a new, more peaceful era for Northern Ireland,

I wanna know if Derry is a better place to grow up in now than back then.

Nothing's really gonna change if everybody's still segregated.

There's still a massive division within Derry, within the two communities.

I'll be finding out new things about my own city.

Mad about it. And visiting parts of it that I've never set foot in before.

I saw the Union Jack and couldn't think.

As well as coming to terms with some of my own demons.

Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Shite-ing myself to be honest.

Most of all, I'll be trying to understand what it's like to be a young person in Derry today.

No! We have our problems, but I wanna solve our problems.

Let's get absolutely snattered. SHE LAUGHS

Saoirse's one of my best friends. She's just brilliant to work with.

I love all the tipples.

We're like the wee terrible twins. "Do you want another one?" The other person's not gonna say no.

Thank you. Cheers. Thank you. Cheers.

So, I think Derry is a class night out, as we all know.

What is it? What do you miss really about Derry when you're away?

I miss, cos Derry's so small, it's walking distance to get a pint.

It is, and a night out here feels like a bigger event.

Do you know, like a night out is out out.

Even when people aren't talking about it, we throw in the facts about Derry,

where's the best place to go, when we signpost it.

And people say, "Do you work for the council?"

We we're like, "Should we work for the council?"

Should we? I think we'd do a really good job.

We are also full of random facts about the town.

We know so many random facts about Derry.

Here's some information I know you didn't want, but here it is.

Facts on Derry by Jamie-Lee and Saoirse.Facts on Derry. SHE LAUGHS

I think it's the people of Derry that make it special for me.

And it comes with all their sensibilities and their weird and wonderful ways.

Like, everything's so intense. I don't know if that's from coming with the Troubles,

or the working-class background, maybe a combination of everything.

But brilliant craic. Brilliant craic. Brilliant craic.

It's like no matter what this town has ever went through,

I think it's bred this real lust for joy.

Like, there's no stopping us. Yeah.

There's no stopping us. There's no stopping us. Aye.

While you can probably hear just how much Saoirse and I love Derry,

we're not blind to its problems.

And obviously we're both very proud of where we're from,

and I think that we're so proud of the show, as well,

and I'm really proud of you doing this documentary.

I don't think that there really is a better person that could be leading this than you.

I've always just really been passionate about it growing up,

and some of the injustices that happened here, like a lot of other places,

and I just think it was time to highlight stuff, just from my perspective, if I can.

My beautiful hometown is in the north-west of Northern Ireland,

close to the Irish border.

KNOCKS ON GLASS

Licence.

Where have you come from today? Derry. Londonderry.

Derry. Londonderry.

Calm the fuck down, James! Are you English? Yeah.

He's fine. We didn't bring him up here to kill him or anything.

Yes, this city is so good, they named it twice. Well, kind of.

Catholics call it Derry and Protestants call it Londonderry.

Behind me here is the west side of the city, also known as the city side.

Back in the day, that was mostly Catholic.

And then on the east here in front of me is the water side

and that was mostly Protestant.

But even today, not much has changed

and the two communities are still largely divided.

This is the Peace Bridge in Derry, one of three bridges, cos we apparently love a bridge.

It was built in 2011 to literally bridge the gap

between the Catholic community and the Protestant community.

Because for a wee while, I don't know if you've heard, we weren't really getting on the best.

Have I ever dated a Protestant? Probably. Without realising.

I definitely got a wee kiss in a nightclub off a Protestant, for defs.

SHE LAUGHS

The way the bridge curves is meant to symbolise

that the path to peace is never straight.

Turns out, they were right.

SIREN WAILS

In 1998, after 30 years of violence

and more than 3,500 deaths,

the Good Friday Agreement was signed.

Protestants and Catholics would now share power in Northern Ireland

to make things fairer for all.

Nearly 25 years later, I want to see

what life is like for young girls growing up in Derry today.

So I've come back to my old school, St Cecilia's College.

Although the building has had a bit of an upgrade since my day,

it brings back lots of memories.

A French fella, that's what I wanna do. Nation of rides.

My fanny's going funny just thinking about it! Could you not use that word, Michelle?

What, fanny? Why do you always have to be so coarse?

What's the big deal? We all have one. I don't. You are one.

Nice to meet yous all, anyway. Nice to meet you. Aren't you supposed to be in class? Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

I can't wait to get back to one of my favourite classes and teachers,

Miss McTague and drama. So good to see you. Thanks for having me back.

Thanks for having me in your class, everybody.

Do you wanna pick yourself out, cos I thought this was hilarious,

cos you're hiding behind a dog poo bin. Of course.

And it's dog shit.OK, good. SHE LAUGHS

We'll say dog poo, and the cot, and the real cot.

It's Channel 4. We can say... THEY LAUGH

You're in your teacher's classroom now. I know. You'll mind your manners.

Oh, I might just swear.

As punishment for my bad language...

Oh, that's not too bad.

..I have to help tidy up the props cupboard.

Look at this. I remember all this stuff.

But it gives me a chance to grill the girls.

Hi. I'm just gonna give you bunches of stuff and then we can have a wee sort through.

# Do-do-do-do

Anyway, so what year are yous all? Upper sixth. Upper sixth.

And are yous all from Derry?

Yes. This is still all girls Catholic school, is that right? Yeah.

Yous don't have a wee random Protestant fella running about, a wee English fella? No.

That would be a good craic.

It's hard to believe that more than 90 percent of children in Northern Ireland

are still educated in non-integrated schools.

That's schools that are effectively either Catholic or Protestant.

Do yous mix with Protestants outside, people of different nationalities, anything like that?

Or do you stick to your own? Everybody's different.

It's not voluntary.

We just, like... Aye. We just so happen to be surrounded by our own people, I think.

Seeking out Protestants. If you're a Protestant, do you wanna be my friend?

SHE LAUGHS Do you wanna play netball?

From hearing what your parents went through or older siblings in terms of living in Derry and segregation,

do you think that's still as prominent now, or are you finding that it's not that big a deal?

I don't think it has really anything to do with religion at all.

It's more political views. Like, who cares if you're a Protestant?

Nobody cares about your actual religion.

Do you think it's more like cultural identity? Aye.

So you think there's space to have a healthy debate with people of your generation

about the cultural differences in Derry?

I wouldn't say healthy. Not healthy. No.

Everyone is so opinionated on it that you almost just don't wanna get into it,

if you're, like, friends with them or... I would disagree.

Say I'm speaking to someone from Belfast and I find out they're a Protestant,

we could speak very openly and honestly, as long as you're both willing to listen.

But I think in Derry, we kind of politicise it more, kind of like standoffish.

It's just nerves. Everybody's nervous. If you ignore it, hope it won't be brung up. Aye.

It seems it can still be hard to talk about these issues

and I wonder if it's because what happened in the past

is still such a big part of people's lives in Derry today.

Because obviously none of yous were around during the Troubles,

do you think it's, even with your generation, it still feels a wee bit personal?

Northern Ireland as a whole, Catholics and Protestants,

have, like, a really high mental health rate,

and we were saying that we think a lot of that does come from the Troubles.

So it's been, like, passed down through, like, trauma.

So is it safe to say, in your generation, you still feel impacted by it

even though yous weren't there in person? Oh, definitely. Yeah. Aye.

God, that's really scary, isn't it? It's like our mummies and daddies.

Of course. It's not that far back in history.

For yous to feel it's impacted your lives now is insane.

There's a whole new generation of people still trying to figure it out and still discussing it.

Like, it's a massive issue.

I don't think I was surprised that they didn't have much cross-community

or much integration with the Protestant community.

You just kind of wish that it wasn't happening still. You'd think we'd have moved on a wee bit.

But it's made me think about the fact that I also lived a fairly segregated life

within my own Catholic community.

Maybe it's time I experienced parts of this city

I've spent my entire life scared to visit.

When I set out to discover what it's like

to be a young person in Derry today,

I didn't expect to be talking about the Troubles quite so soon.

But I've realised that to understand Derry,

you have to go back to the 30th of January 1972.

Hello, Ciara. Hello, Jamie-Lee, how are you?

Great. Thanks for having me. Not at all. Thank you for coming.

Ciara O'Connor Pozo is showing me around the Museum Of Free Derry,

where the main exhibition remembers a day the people of Derry will never forget.

This is the Derry Civil Rights Association banner.

And it was actually carried on Bloody Sunday.

You might see that it's kind of a bit stained,

and that's actually because it was lain over the body of Hugh Gilmour,

who was shot just outside the Rossville flats.

17-year-old Hugh Gilmour was shot dead on Bloody Sunday.

He was one of 13 people killed by British Army paratroopers that day.

A 14th man died from his injuries five months later.

It's quite a sad exhibition, as well. It's quite powerful.

It is. It's really overwhelming, isn't it... Mm-hm. ..to see it?

The Troubles in Northern Ireland started in the late 1960s,

fuelled by historical events and social injustices.

After more than 700 years of British rule,