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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
Entertainment
Meredith Blake

How an 'incredible' real-life feat gave a TV show about 'the Troubles' its happy ending

Michelle JamieLee ODonnell Chelsea Clinton Troubles Derry Hillary Clinton Orla Louisa Harland Clare Nicola Coughlan

After three long, agonizing years, "Derry Girls" has finally returned to American television.

The nostalgic coming-of-age comedy, set in Northern Ireland in the 1990s, follows a group of Catholic schoolgirls (and one boy) whose adolescent high jinks unfold against the backdrop of "the Troubles."

The last time we saw the gang — aspiring writer Erin (Saiorse-Monica Jackson), her space-cadet cousin Orla (Louisa Harland), studious Clare (Nicola Coughlan), party girl Michelle (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) and her English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn) — it was late 1995 and President Clinton was visiting Derry to deliver a hopeful speech about the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland.

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