Each generation in Northern Ireland has reflected on the 'troubles' in its own way – right up to 'Derry Girls'

A mural in Derry commemorating the TV show 'Derry Girls,' which follows the lives of teenagers growing up amid Northern Ireland's troubles. Dominic Bryan, CC BY-NC-ND

A 9-year-old boy lies on the floor of a working-class rowhouse in Belfast, Northern Ireland, wondrously watching American Westerns on TV. Outside, though, the world’s gone mad. Broken glass and shattered masonry. Barricades go up. Rifle-toting soldiers patrol the streets.

It’s August 1969, the summer that Northern Ireland’s ‘troubles’ flared into violence.