Irish dialects

The paper intends to explicate the reasons why the 2018 British-Irish television series Derry Girls seemingly succeeded against all odds to become one of Channel 4's most successful ever shows. Derry Girls uses unadulterated Derry/Londonderry English dialogue with highly specific 1990s and native references. I argue that its writer Lisa McGee wrote it in this way so as to make Derry Girls as organic and culturally alive as possible. Without the usage of Derry/Londonderry English dialogue, the unique character of Derry Girls would arguably become subject to artistic compromise and erosion. I argue that copious layers of nuanced meaning would become lost from the show if its usage of Derry/Londonderry English became softened or even "translated" slightly into Standard English. This is because it is a core element of Derry Girls idiosyncratic style which celebrates Irish English and revels in its remarkable linguistic elasticity. In short, without Derry/Londonderry English, Derry Girls would cease to be as successful as it is. This paper is a study of the linguistic and cultural content of the 2018-2019 Channel 4 television series Derry Girls, which is now in its second series. The show is set in the city of Derry/Londonderry in the early 1990s in the midst of the Northern Ireland "Troubles" and the Derry Girls themselves are a group of four 15 year olds growing up in a working class, and dangerous, Irish Republican estate near the city walls called the Bogside. However, the show is a comedy and the characters live by and large mundane lives where the political events going on around