Derry City film hitting the silver screen next month

One of the new themes explored in the film is the relationship between football and religion - how the glory years were spiritual for some players and fans.

In one clip of Derry City’s most loyal fans, Eugene McGeehan, explains why the 1985 revival of the club was, for him, an almost religious experience. McGeehan left Derry as a young man to find work in Belfast, but his heart was still in Derry.

The team’s return to senior football meant more to him than most because it meant he had a golden excuse to visit his hometown every fortnight. He’s in no doubt that football became a spiritual thing in Derry in the 1980s, describing the Brandywell as a kind of Mecca.

He says: “It lifted you from the ground to be something else. If Jim McLaughlin was God, then Felix Healy was the Messiah’.

McGeehan’s words may sound over-the-top, but nobody would deny that the first couple of years in the League of Ireland during Noel King’s reign (1985-1987) were something special.

In the film, Owen Da Gama talks about how the Derry crowd gave him supernatural powers he didn’t know he had. Da Gama, along with his teammates Nelson da Silva and José Mukendi, were certainly worshipped by the fans.

One of the young boys screaming his support from the stands would have been Chris Ferguson, who went on to become a parish priest. Currently at the Three Patrons and also the club's Chaplin, Father Chris is well known for using football analogies into his sermons.

“I asked Father Chris if he is allowed to preach about football from the pulpit," admitted Guy King, the film’s director. "He explained that Jesus was always bringing secular stories into his ministry - so he has no problem using football parables in the same way.

"When researching the film, I noticed lots of Christian metaphors popping up: the phrase ‘wilderness years’ is used to describe the 13 years that Derry was exiled from the Irish League, and in gaining entry to the League of Ireland the club was, in many ways, ‘born again’.

"As Eamonn McCann puts it: ‘It was like the resurrection of Derry City. To die in the north and be resurrected in the south. There's something about that: it's a heady thing to happen."

King also got to know a fan who takes her rosary to the matches. “Mary Irwin is known for saying Hail Marys if things aren’t going well and she told me that for the 90 minutes of the match all her aches and pains disappear, so that is a form of spiritual healing I suppose! I love her attitude - she believes a good fan should never criticise players, no matter what.

"Alongside her friend Theresa McBride they shake their pompoms and encourage players when they make mistakes.”

Also supporting Derry City in the 1980s was a St Columb’s College student who would go on to become a professor of sociology, David Hassan, with a specialism of religion in sport. He says of the phenomenon of Derry fans travelling all over the country.

“It can only be properly explained through the prism of a pilgrimage of sorts, people drawn to support this team in ways that can't ordinarily be explained simply with reference to sport - there's something more, almost spiritual, taking place in terms of their support of that club, particularly in those early years," said Hassan.

The producers are hoping that Derry fans past and present come out in their thousands again to worship their heroes at the Brunswick Moviebowl between Thursday, September 9th and Wednesday, September 15th. Tickets are now on sale at Brunswick Moviebowl.