The third and final season of Lisa McGee’s popular series Derry Girls debuted in the UK in January of 2018. It streams for international audiences this month. Its Gen-X, Troubles-era brand of Northern Irish comedy, which follows five working-class friends at a Catholic girls’ school in the 1990s, showed a whole new side of Derry to the world that will be missed.

In 2021, writer/creator McGee (whose television credits include the BAFTA-nominated Being Human, London Irish, and the Golden Globe-nominated BBC drama series The White Queen) tweeted:

“It was always the plan to say goodbye after three series. Derry Girls is a coming-of-age story; following five ridiculous teenagers as they slowly…very slowly… start to become adults, while around them the place they call home starts to change too and Northern Ireland enters a new more hopeful phase — which was a small, magical window of the time.”

Within that small window, we, non-Derry girls, learned a wee bit of slang that we won’t forget anytime soon. Here are some of the phrases with which Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle, James, their families, the people at Our Lady Immaculate College, and greater Derry kept us on our toes. I made sure to use slang to describe some of the slang just for the craic!:

Wains-children, as the girls (and James), were often called by adults.

 

Wee

Small but, also, things that aren’t all that small — as James pointed out in a fit of rage while adjusting to Derry slang.

Happy days

When things are copacetic or, sarcastically, when they most certainly aren’t.

Grand

Cool, good, ok. But it can also mean the opposite, depending on the tone.

I will yeah

I most certainly will not.

Lost the plot

Having no idea what’s happening. Or: when someone is lost or ‘away with the fairies.’ Think Orla 24/7.

A ride

A good-looking person (noun). Or the act of getting it on with said person (verb). Example of usage: Katya (the Ukrainian exchange student who fled the Quinn’s house for Jenny Joyce’s) thought James was not only a ride, but she also wanted to ride him.

 

Shift

To kiss. If you do it with passion, you are ‘scoring the face off someone.’

The state of you!

When you need to ‘wise up,’ ‘catch yourself on,’ and quit being ‘a dose’ or ‘acting the maggot’ because your demeanor is worrisome. Like, when Clare let Erin know that all lesbians wouldn’t automatically be attracted to her.

 

Cack attack

Nervousness or an anxiety attack. Think Clare on any given stressful day.

‘Hi’

Hard to pinpoint but often used at the end of a sentence. Just because it can be?

Craic

Fun. Gossip. Or: what Michelle is constantly on the lookout for. ‘What’s the craic’ can also mean ‘How are ya?’, which is often said ‘What about ya?’

Even if those of us (not from Derry) begin to forget our appropriated slang, McGee offered fans some hope of a reunion in her 2021 tweet, saying: “Who knows if Erin, Clare, Orla, Michelle, and James will return in some other guise someday.” Happy days!