Kate Mulgrew on The Galway Bay Murders: "If there’s no chemistry between yourself and the partner, I don’t think there’s a show"

Kate Mulgrew stars in The Galway Bay Murders, RTÉ’s new six-part crime thriller, penned by first-time television writer Eithne Verling. The  series follows Nora Savage (Mulgrew), a seasoned NYPD investigator unexpectedly pulled into a murder investigation while taking a career break in the west of Ireland.

Ahead of its premiere, Hot Press visited the set at Ross Castle, an elegant 16th-century manor in Connemara where some of the final scenes were being filmed. Produced under the working title The Yank, the drama began with a chance meeting between Verling and Mulgrew in Galway almost a decade ago. Verling created the character Nora Savage specifically for Kate, before developing the rest of the show. Now, Mulgrew enthusiastically discusses her work on the  project.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, and I’ve loved him,” she laughs, pointing towards John Connors, who plays Eddie, a local Garda who becomes Nora’s partner. “This was the biggest surprise. If there’s no chemistry between yourself and the partner, I don’t think there’s a show.”

“We get each other,” Connors says. “I don’t think you can fake any of that, or there’s no way to prepare for that. It’s just what it is.”

Nora is thrust into the local Garda force following the mysterious murder of a climate activist. Her arrival shakes up the dynamics of the station, although she establishes an especially close bond with Eddie, who, like Connors, is a member of the Traveller community.

“He’s a Traveller and she’s American,” Mulgrew says. “But Nora was blind to all this, and that’s why it works. Nora is not informed on anything the Irish would be informed about.

“Nora is slashed by grief, and that’s always beneath the surface. The only thing that saves her is that familiar muscle that is detective work, and I think Eddie helps to save her. He takes her out of herself just enough so that she doesn’t submerge entirely into sadness.”

John Connors and Kate Mulgrew in The Galway Bay Murders. Credit: Martin Maguire

Connors was initially brought into the writers’ room to help develop Eddie rather than to join the cast. He was among a group of specialists consulted to ensure that the technical and cultural aspects of the script were accurate.

“I would never have had this role if it wasn’t for my wife, because I was an adviser,” he says. “She said, ‘Why are you not playing this role? You should be fighting for this role. This is a great role.’

“Eddie would be very reserved and very calculated. He likes to step back and watch. He likes to control things. If you put on a different accent and pretend not to be who you are, you are an outcast in the Traveller community because you are ashamed of who you are.

“However, Eddie does it, but he isn’t doing it out of shame. It’s like he becomes a different person when he’s a guard and a different person when he’s with the family. That’s not just with the accent; it’s how he comes alive with humour and warmth.

“Trying to be loyal to both communities and being dutiful, he thinks he’s going to find this inner peace, but you just can’t be loyal to two communities in that way. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had playing a character, and I feel like it’s the most important character I’ve played.”

Accuracy was hugely important to the series’ creators. Verling brought in retired detective inspector Michael Coppinger to ensure that the technical aspects of the murder investigation were realistic.

“He talked us through so many cases and how he tracked them down,” Verling says. “He gave us everything, chapter and verse. Every time I did a draft, I sent it to Mick, and we sat down over long cups of coffee and went through it all.

“He’d say, ‘They wouldn’t say that,’ ‘They wouldn’t do that,’ or, ‘This is where they would go for that information’ – all that lore. Just before the show started filming, we went to see the new Garda station in Galway and met a chief superintendent. He brought us through the whole station, and we saw where every single beat of our story would happen.”

Nora also forms a close bond with Peter, another member of the force, played by Colm Meaney.

Colm Meaney in The Galway Bay Murders. Credit: Martin Maguire

“She thinks she’s exhausted her capacity, but it’s revitalised,” Mulgrew says. “And Peter – she loves Peter. I think any demographic will look at that and say, ‘Ah, this is a story of love.’ Not a spoiler, I can assure you. But they are attracted to each other. It’s dear. It’s darling.”

Also joining Eddie and Nora in the investigation are officers Ger (Cillian O’Sullivan) and Martina (India Mullen).

“Ger is a bit of an arsehole,” O’Sullivan laughs. “He is not the most competent of them all. He is the ‘save the cat’ guy, I think. That’s the kind of guy Ger is. He’s the guy you’re meant to dislike at the beginning, and you might warm to him a bit later.”

“Martina is on the very first day of the case,” Mullen explains. “She is appointed as the senior investigating officer, so she is kind of thrown in at the deep end. She’s pretty much a rookie, trying to work it out on her feet.”

However, the pair are not as welcoming of Nora’s arrival as Eddie or Peter.

“Both Ger and Martina struggle with Nora’s arrival,” Mullen says. “Both of them are a little apprehensive about her arrival at the station and what that means for their own positions. I guess there is some conflict there that transforms as it goes on.

“There’s an observation from the rest of the world about America right now, and sometimes people have that attitude towards American people themselves, even though they are not necessarily their government. I think that’s definitely the case with Ger and Martina.”

India Mullen and Cillian O'Sullivan in The Galway Bay Murders. Credit: Martin Maguire

The investigation also draws in employees of Free Farm, an eco-conscious multinational, including its head of security, Moss (Jack Rowan).

“Moss is the head of security for Free Farm,” Rowan says. “He just keeps the farm and the estate ticking along and tries to make everything efficient and safe. He has an overseeing eye and knows everything that is going on.”

After speaking with the cast, we get a close-up view of one of the scenes being filmed. The garden privy at Ross Castle has been transformed into a makeshift studio. Even after a long day of filming, the crew maintain an acute attention to detail. Connors and Mulgrew, meanwhile, are eagerly awaiting the public’s reaction.

“I’d be entirely shocked if it didn’t go to season two and people didn’t like it,” Connors says.

“I wouldn’t be shocked, John, only because I’ve been at the game so long,” Mulgrew replies. “But I’d be awfully disappointed.”

• Episode one of The Galway Bay Murders airs at 9.30pm tonight, November 8, on RTÉ One.