Derry City F.C. - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Derry City have made numerous appearances in popular culture. In the world of music, the club was given exposure by Derry punk band, The Undertones, which had the cover of its 1980 hit single, My Perfect Cousin, feature a Subbuteo figure sporting the colours of Derry City. The song's video included the group's front-man, Feargal Sharkey, kicking and leaping to head a ball while wearing the red and white jersey. Similarly, on the cover of its second ever single, Get Over You, the words "Derry City F.C." can be seen.

The club have also featured on popular television. Due to the fact that it is a club based in Northern Ireland playing in the league of the Republic of Ireland, it often receives the attention of broadcasters in both jurisdictions. In the BBC documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? shown the night before Derry's clash with Paris St. Germain in the 2006–07 UEFA Cup first round, it was highlighted that Archie McLeod, the grandfather of David Tennant, the Doctor Who actor, was a Derry City player. Derry had supplied a lucrative signing-on fee and had enticed him over from Scotland. Likewise, features about the club were run by Football Focus prior to and after the same UEFA Cup game. Irish television has also featured the club. Derry City played in the first League of Ireland match ever to be shown live on television when it visited Tolka Park to play Shelbourne during the 1996–97 season. The game was broadcast on RTÉ's Network 2 and finished 1–1 with Gary Beckett scoring for Derry.

Another medium to play host to the club has been the radio. On 20 April 2005, Derry City featured in an audio documentary The Blues and the Candy Stripes on RTÉ Radio 1's Documentary on One. The documentary was produced in the aftermath of the historic friendly game between Derry and Linfield that took place on 22 February 2005 – the first between the two teams to occur since a game on 25 January 1969 during which Linfield's fans had to be evacuated from the Brandywell by police at half-time due to civil unrest and ugly scenes within the ground. The 2005 match was organised as a kind of security test in the run-up to the likely possibility that both teams, with socially polar fan-bases, would qualify for and be drawn against one another in a near-future Setanta Cup competition.