IT’S A PLOT twist that Derry City Council doesn’t find very funny, and neither do some locals.
The main cast of the iconic sitcom Derry Girls were immortalised with their very own mural on a gable end on the city’s Orchard Street in 2019 – but now the pub on which the striking street art is painted has erected an awning that partly covers Erin, Michelle and the rest of the Derry Girls gang.
Badgers Bar has outdoor seating alongside the mural wall.
Derry City and Strabane District Council said today that planning permission granted to the pub in 2022 for new awnings on its external walls “does not include the awning and structure on the elevation where the Derry Girls mural is located”.
The council’s planning enforcement team “has initiated an investigation into the matter”, it added.
Planning files from the 2022 permission contain drawings showing new awnings on other walls of the pub, but not the gable end.
Lovely to see Derry shoot itself square in the foot again by building a glorified smoking hut to cover half the Derry Girls mural...
— Claire Allan / Freya Kennedy (@ClaireAllan) September 12, 2024
Scunnered is not the word for it.
I despair. pic.twitter.com/YdBjNWGJny
Badgers Bar said today that it is not commenting at the moment.
UV Arts, the street art social enterprise that made the mural, has been approached for comment.
The mural depicting James (Dylan Llewellyn), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Orla (Louisa Harland) and Clare (Nicola Coughlan) from writer Lisa McGee’s hit Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls – which reached a global audience on Netflix – is described as a “must-see” by the Visit Derry tourist board.
It’s also popular with locals who have taken to social media to express disappointment at the new structure blocking the view.
I love my hometown - but sometimes those in charge really know how to ruin a good thing. Derry Girls was an international phenomenon & this mural is incredibly popular with tourists in a prime city location. A real shame.
— Movies In Focus (@moviesinfocus) September 13, 2024
See below for before & after (yes, that is me). https://t.co/N3jSmAB2QQ pic.twitter.com/MguU7nFz5i
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