This week, Northern Ireland is celebrating new reproductive and equal marriage rights. Thanks to a bill spearheaded by Stella Creasy and Conor McGinn, Northern Ireland’s ban on abortion will be lifted and and equal marriage will be legalised. It’s definitely the right time to champion and thank people for the the relentless hard work and dedication that has gone into making this happen.

The celebration is so great that it has even sparked an amazing new friendship between stars of two of our favourite TV shows. 

Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness and Derry Girls actor Nicola Coughlan have been sparking joy on Twitter with photos of the pair hanging out together and marking the landmark week for Northern Ireland.

Van Ness is currently touring a live show as part of the promotion for his new memoir, Over The Top, and he performed in London this week. During his stay, Van Ness met up with Coughlan, who showed a photo of the pair casually catching the tube together.

“I love you my soul sister,” she captioned the shot.

After the news of Northern Ireland’s new laws were announced a couple of days later, Coughlan then shared a string of celebratory tweets. Among these, she posted a hilarious and sweet video of herself with Van Ness. Coughlan – whose Derry Girls character Claire Devlin icame out as a “wee lesbian” – does an impression of her character in the video. Van Ness then does his own impression, complete with Northern Irish accent.

“Northern Ireland as you wake up today to marriage equality, don’t forget who the real Wee Lesbian is-It’s @JVN” Coughlan wrote alongside the video.

Van Ness then retweeted the video, writing “Yessss Northern Ireland” alongside a love heart and pride flag. 

Thousands of fans have since liked, retweeted and replied saying how much they love this new friendship.

Earlier this year, Coughlan joined her Derry Girls co-stars to deliver a 62,000-strong petition to Westminster, calling for abortion rights to be extended to Northern Ireland. 

“It’s almost unbelievable that women in Northern Ireland are still being persecuted by a Victorian-era abortion ban,” Coughlan said at the time. 

Siobhan McSweeney, who plays Derry Girls’ Sister Michael, said she was marching “for our sisters in the North who have been forced to suffer under one of the most oppressive and severe abortion laws in the world for far too long. It’s 2019, yet women in Northern Ireland still face restrictions on their reproductive rights that women across the rest of the UK and Ireland do not. It’s our time for change.”

Now that this change has finally happened, let the celebrations continue. 

Images: Getty