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19th May 2022

Derry Girls creator actually sent Chelsea Clinton a letter when she was 13

Sarah McKenna Barry

She asked the president’s daughter if she fancied going to the cinema.

Last night, Channel 4 aired an hour-long special episode of Derry Girls, which was set around the Good Friday Agreement referendum.

The emotional episode saw the group prepare for Erin and Orla’s joint birthday party, while planning on how they were going to vote in the referendum.

In the end, they all voted yes, and the final scene featured an exuberant Joe walking out of the polling station holding hands with his youngest granddaughter.

It didn’t finish just there, however, and in the show’s epilogue, we see Chelsea Clinton read out a letter sent to her by Orla and Erin that had gotten lost in the post back in the 90s.

As it turns out, the show’s creator, Lisa McGee based that storyline on her own experience.

In a 2019 interview with the New York Times, the Irish writer explained that she penned a letter to Chelsea in 1995 when the President Bill Clinton and his family visited Northern Ireland.

In her correspondence, McGee invited Chelsea to go see a film with her at the Strand cinema in Derry.

“She never replied,” Lisa said. “The innocence of that. Living in this place that’s violent and scary, but we were these eejits running about writing letters to Chelsea Clinton.”

All these years later, Chelsea has not only returned Lisa’s correspondence, but she went one step further and agreed to star in the post-credits scene, an experience she said she was “honoured” to do.

Afterwards, she said: “Thanks to Lisa McGee’s incredible talent, and that of the wonderful cast and crew of Derry Girls, people around the world have been able to better understand and relate to a hugely significant and important period of history in Northern Ireland and for the world.

“Like many, I am a big fan of the series, and I was honoured to be able to appear in the very special final episode. I hope people enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed being a part of it.”