Nicola Coughlan offers best Galway tips to Lin Manuel Miranda

Galway’s iconic city bookshop Charlie Byrne’s can expect a celebrity visitor or two in the near future – after Oranmore’s Nicola Coughlan suggested it as the place to go…to no less than Hamilton star, Lin Manuel Miranda.

The Derry Girls star was the special guest this week on Elle UK’s Ask Me Anything slot, when Miranda, most recently seen in the BBC’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, asked her for recommendations of places to go and things to do in Ireland.

“I would go to Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, it is a beautiful second-hand book store where you can get everything you could possibly imagine,” she told him.

And she didn’t stop there – because there was a good pub guide too.

“You should have a pint of Guinness, of course, in Tigh Neachtain, which is a beautiful Irish pub where there’s lots of singing and music, which you could join in with,” she said.

The 34-year-old Galwegian, who shot to fame as Clare Devlin in the Channel 4 series, will see her star shine even brighter over the next few months as the new series of the Netflix hit Bridgerton hits the screens.

She will reprise the role of Penelope Featherington – and she has hinted that her character will enjoy raunchier scenes with co-star Luke Newton, who plays Colin Bridgerton, when the series drops on March 25.

Nicola grew up as the youngest in a family of four in Oranmore, and always had an interest in acting.

“I got my first job at nine, which was voiceover work. It really helped with my confidence and it showed me how the industry works at a young age.”

A past pupil of Scoil Mhuire and Calasanctius College in Oranmore, Nicola was just 17 leaving school and entering NUI Galway.

“I knew I wanted to act, but I wanted to have a college experience too,” she said.

“I probably spent more time with Dramsoc and the Musical Society than I did studying, but I loved my time in NUIG. I’ve always seen Galway as a real student city that’s so welcoming to everyone because most people are blow-ins, and that makes it so culturally diverse as well.”

And it’s one element that cultural diversity that she is now selling to Lin Manuel Miranda – a book from Charlie Byrne’s to be read over a pint in Tigh Neachtain…doing her bit for Galway tourism in the process!