Explained | A brief history of 20th-century Northern Ireland, as seen on ‘Derry Girls’

What was the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought an end to decades of violence in Northern Ireland?

The story so far: The third and final season of the popular BBC show Derry Girls premiered on Netflix on October 7. Set in Northern Ireland’s Londonderry in the 1990s, the show follows the many misadventures of a group of friends who attend a girls’ Catholic school, and their families.

Serving as a strong backdrop for the show is the country’s political turmoil during this time. Created by Lisa McGee, Derry Girls has received rave reviews from critics and has been loved by audiences worldwide.

In India too, the show has generated interest in the history of Ireland, specifically the Troubles and the 1998 referendum that led to the Good Friday Agreement.

The Troubles, also known as the Northern Ireland Conflict, was a turbulent period in Northern Ireland’s history that began in the late 1960s and lasted till 1998. Two groups – the unionists and loyalists (mostly Ulster Protestants) on one side and nationalists and republicans (mostly Roman Catholics) on the other -- fought over concerns of ethnonationalism and whether Northern Ireland should be a part of the U.K. or not. The loyalists wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the U.K., while the nationalists wanted it to be a part of a united Ireland.

Although the Troubles are usually considered to have begun in the 1960s, they are linked to the age-old history of the Irish island (which was predominantly Roman Catholic) and its occupation by British settlers (mostly Protestants).

The early 20th century saw a rise in nationalism on the island, which led to the Irish War of Independence in 1919. It was a guerrilla war, fought between the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and the British forces. In 1920, the U.K. Parliament enacted the Government of Ireland Act in a bid to end the war. The legislation provided for the division of Ireland into two self-governing parts within the U.K. Northern Ireland was formed by combining four majority loyalist counties – Antrim, Down, Armagh, and Londonderry (also called Derry) – along with Fermanagh and Tyrone which had small Catholic nationalist majorities. Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan, which had significant nationalist majorities, were combined with 23 remaining counties to form the southern part. Both Northern and Southern Ireland were to have their own parliaments, but continue to remain part of the U.K.

However, within a year, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was agreed upon, creating an Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland, in the south. Northern Ireland was given the option to either be a part of the Irish Free State or the U.K. The Anglo-Irish Treaty ended the 1919 Irish War of Independence, and Northern Ireland chose to remain a part of the U.K.