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Derry Girls: Fans get sneak preview of new museum exhibit

Channel 4 Clare Devlin (Nicola Coughlan), Orla Mccool (Louis Clare Harland) Erin Quinn (Saoirse Monica Jackson), Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) and James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn) in Derry GirlsChannel 4
The new exhibit set to open in the summer will feature props and sets from the hit Channel 4 comedy series

Fans of the hit comedy series Derry Girls are now able to get a sneak preview of a new museum exhibit.

Some items due to go on display at the Tower Museum exhibit, which officially opens in July, are now on display at the Visit Derry information centre.

It is hoped the exhibit will bolster tourism for the city and district.

The city has already capitalised on the popularity of the Channel 4 comedy with a number of tourist attractions on offer in the city and district.

The most famous of these is the Derry Girls mural that features the faces of the main cast on a large gable wall of Badger's Bar on Orchard Street.

Plans for a new museum exhibit and new Derry Girls walking trail were confirmed following a meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council in January.

Derry Girls
Some items include pop tarts from Breakfast scenes, FatBoy Slim concert tickets and a ballot box

Derry Girls, which first aired on Channel 4 in 2018, follows four teenage girls - and "a wee English fella" - growing up in Londonderry in Northern Ireland during the 1990s.

It tracks the group as they navigate the ups and downs of teenage life, all in the shadow of the final years of the Troubles.

The show has been a massive success for Channel 4, winning Royal Television Society Awards, Irish Film and Television Awards and being nominated for BAFTAs.

The final episode aired on 18 May last year after three series.

Peter Marley Promotional still from Derry Girls showing a sign publicising the Northern Ireland Referendum 1998Peter Marley
The events of the show's finale took place against the backdrop of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent referendum

The council's head of culture, Aeidin McCarter, said the new exhibition set to open in the summer will create a longer term Derry Girls experience for the city.

Ms McCarter said that the worldwide success of the award-winning series, created by screenwriter Lisa McGee, presented a fantastic opportunity to enhance the tourism offering.

Claire and Ma Mary's costumes
Some of the costumes from the series can also be viewed early at the Visit Derry

Ms McGee was awarded the freedom of Derry City and Strabane at a ceremony in December in recognition of the "global positive impact" that her work has had on the city and district.

She was the first woman to ever receive the council's highest honour.

DCSDC Lisa McGee at Derry's GuildhallDCSDC
Mayor of Derry Sandra Duffy pictured with Derry Girls screenwriter Lisa McGee

The museum exhibit will showcase original sets, props and other 90s memorabilia from episodes over the show's three series.

Some items on display early are Claire Devlin's school uniform, Erin Quinn's diary and the polling box and all of the electoral voting cards of the main cast from the Good Friday Agreement final episode.

Roisin Doherty
Tower Museum curator Roisin Doherty says the display will give fans a taster of what to expect in the museum exhibition in the summer

Museum curator Roisin Doherty said fans who may have been feeling a bit forlorn since the curtains closed on the series will be able to enjoy this "taster display" before the official launch of the new exhibit.

"This taster display is one of three different segments for the overall exhibition that will go on display at the Tower Museum in July," Ms Doherty told BBC Radio Foyle.

"All of these pieces on display were loaned to us by Hattrick Productions and of course thanks to Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee.

"The full exhibition will open in July and all of us here who are big fans of the show are all really looking forward to it."