How They Met: Miss Ireland Grainne Gallanagh and fiancé Ryan were just friends before nightclub smooch

Former Miss Universe Ireland Grainne Gallanagh is in the middle of planning her wedding to fiancé Ryan Coleman after they got engaged at the end of last year.

The couple recently made the big move to Perth in Western Australia and the Donegal native, 29, is now working a job that couldn’t be more different than modeling: driving trucks on a construction mine site!

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Grainne and Ryan have been going strong for 10 years now and she told EVOKE the full story of how they met.

Pic: Grainne Gallanagh/Instagram

Friends first

The pair first met at secondary school and were just friends for years before their romance blossomed ‘naturally’ when they both went to Letterkenny IT, where Grainne studied nursing.

Grainne said: ‘I think we quickly realised that we had such similar senses of humour, he would make me laugh so much, I found him so funny. He loved that he could make me laugh so much, he would seek me out on nights out to make me laugh!’

She said they started sharing lifts to college in her Fiat Punto which is where she first felt a spark, saying: ‘We were singing in the car and Call Me Maybe came on the radio and he started to sing it at the top of his lungs, and I was like “Oh my god, I think I really like him”… I just knew from then on.’

A kiss in local nightclub made it official

Pic: Grainne Gallanagh/Instagram

As their friendship grew, feelings started to develop on both sides but Grainne wasn’t sure Ryan was definitely into her until he kissed her on a night out in Pulse nightclub in Letterkenny.

‘We were spending so much time together and going for lunch and dinner but it wasn’t anything romantic,’ she said. ‘And then on a night out he just kissed me and that was [that].

‘We don’t even think we ever even made it official, we just kind of slipped into being in a relationship without labeling it, it was very natural.’

Her number-one supporter

Miss Ireland Grainne Gallanagh at the the 2018 Miss Universe competition in Bangkok, Thailand. Pic: FOX Image Collection via Getty Images

In 2018, Grainne was crowned Miss Universe Ireland and went on to represent Ireland in the final of Miss Universe in Bangkok, where she placed in the top 20.

Her boyfriend Ryan was her biggest supporter throughout the competition and believed she was going to win it, with Grainne saying: ‘He was so sure [I was going to win it], the whole way through…

‘And then when I got into the top 20 he was like “You were robbed!”,’ she laughed.

Romantic beach proposal

Pic: Grainne Gallanagh/Instagram

The couple are now planning to say ‘I do’ after Ryan got down on one knee while they were on a road trip along the coast of Australia last November.

She said: ‘I was obviously delighted and I was hoping it was coming down the line at some stage, we had been together a long time. But it was a lovely surprise, I didn’t expect it at the time, [the proposal] was on the beach at sunset, so it was perfect.’

While Grainne might have been surprised by Ryan’s proposal she says her family has been expecting it some time and when Ryan called her dad to ask for his approval, her father had the most Irish response ever, saying: ‘Well you know each other long enough now Ryan.’

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Pic: Grainne Gallanagh/Instagram

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