Hanging With Northern Irish Girls

Leanne texting her boyfriend that would break up with her via text msg later that night, originally uploaded by BiddieB.

This is a picture of Leanne, she's one of the three 20 year old girls me and my friends met in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Now Derry, for those of you that don't know, - I didn't know until I went there myself - is the place where Bloody Sunday happened. Yes, the same Bloody Sunday that U2 sings about. For some reason I always thought they were singing about the Russian Revolution, but this makes much more sense, them being Irish and all. Bloody Sunday happened in an area called the Bogside, which is where the Catholics live (and still live) on January 30, 1972 and 17 men were killed by the British Army during a peaceful protest. Derry, as I'll probably get into in another blog posting has a very, very, very difficult and confusing history filled with conflict that goes back to the 1600s.

So, these girls we met were Catholic, that means they're on the side of the IRA. Well sort of, I guess it's now called the R. IRA (Real Irish Republican Army), although these girls really had no political agendas. I'm probably just looping them into that because they are Catholics who live in Derry.

So, It was Saturday night and my friends from Canada and I were planning on having a low key evening. We had watched an episode of Extras and had decided to go and get some beers and fish and chips. Darren, one of my Canadian friends, saw these young girls who were sitting on their patio a few doors down from where we were hanging out and asked them where an off sales store was. They told him and then invited him and us girls (me and Donna) to "come up for drinks." Being the adventurous and artistic types we are we said "Yes, lets," to this offer.

We got our beers. Well, first we went into a very small town bar where everyone stared at us as we walked in, who then directed us to where we needed to go in very thick Irish accents. Then went to the chip shop where a very obese woman with a huge white head on her upper cheek gave us huge portions of french fries with our greasy fish. We then went back to the girls.

There was Leanne, a 20 year old girl who'd just been laid off that week from her call centre job with Skye TV, Laura an 18 year old stick thin cutie who'd also been laid off that week from a job I can't remember and then there was ... oh I can't remember her name right now so lets call her Diana. Diana was 19 and had an 18 month old little boy from a boy who's no longer in her life. Her child was with her mother for the night and the place we were hanging out at was hers.

We asked them why they'd ask us over and they said it was because we weren't from there and that I had such a nice smile they knew that we were good people. Ya, getting braces as a child! It's helped me out in so many ways.

So we sat there picking at our disgusting food while the girls pounded back vodka and redbull and Pimms and lemonaid. We discussed cultural differences like how they call all pop lemonaid and we also asked them what it was like to live in Derry with the whole Catholic vs Protestant thing today. They said it wasn't so bad except at some clubs where guys will fight each other but for the most part you can't tell who's who. Although they were quite adamant that they could and would never date a Protestant because their family's would be very upset- i.e. their brothers we beat the guy up.

We also discussed how we wear less make up than them. Which I guess it why they thought we were younger than we actually are.
This was an interesting topic for me, as I've spent this past year facinatied by the "London Look." Which is very harsh and yet pretty. The girls are very styled with tonnes of make up, fake tans, fake nails and often adding fake hair. They wear skinny tight clothing no matter what their body type and they trip around in platforms or very high heals. At 20 these girls look like 40 year old cougars, sucking on their cigarettes prowling for men.

We saw cellphone photos of their ugly boyfriends, who were often in and out of court every month with some minor offenses which we were left to imagine what they could be.. These kids looked like hoodlums- mini Eminems with bleached blond hair and weaselly faces. Leanne told us that her boyfriend cheats on her, but they've been together for three years so she knows she loves him. We were quite honest about our thoughts on that, that is was only fair if they were both able to see other people, otherwise as the ladies on Maury would say, "loose that zero and get yourself a hero." I could tell that she was sad about her boyfriend being such a cheat but I suppose she though she loved him and had to stay with him.

Then the girls convinced us that we should come out clubbing with them. We all knew this was going to be lame but their enthusiasm and drunkenness made it seem like a good idea. First though they had to lend us clothes because Donna and I were too shabby to go out to a club. Then after they lathered themselves us with fake tan turning themselves an orange-y brown. I asked them why they did all that (got to pampered up) and Leanne told me that the guys expect the girls to be gorgeous. And gorgeous to these guys means fake, fake, fake.

It too the girls nearly an hour and a half to get ready, then they put some terrible makeup on me which involved under eyeliner and we all hopped into a cab. It was about a five minute drive, that we could have walked in 15 minutes, but of course the streets of Derry are no place for a lady after dark, and these girls wouldn't have lasted two minutes in their fashionable shoes.

The club was generic. Smoke, strobe lights, deep throbbing bass, mirrored walls and young men and women dressed up in their finest pounding back whatever they could get their hands on. The music was a medley of Michael Jackson (as he had just passed away two days prior) and UK top 40 (aka US top 40 mixed with really bad techno).

On the way to the club Leanne was sad and revealed to us that her boyfriend had broken up with her via text message. I suppose they haven't heard the song by Kelly - You Can't Text Message Break Up - or the Sex and the City episode about this issue.

We left the club after an hour, after trying not very hard to have a good time. Clearly we were much older than these girls and were going to damper their fun or "lets get so wasted we can't remember how awful our lives are."

I've often scoffed at these types of girls in my time around London, but this evening gave me a peek into their world. They wear lots of make up because that's what every one else does, they dress like skanks because that's how everyone else does, they date terrible guys because that's what's available. These girls were very sweet and kind and I hope that one day they can have everything they want.