Dallas star Patrick Duffy was surprised with a birthday cake as he jetted into Dublin as the international guest of honour at this year's St Patrick's Day festival.
The American actor – famed for his role as Bobby Ewing - celebrated his 74th birthday at the parade with organisers surprising him with a cake.
Patrick, whose grandfather emigrated from Ireland to America in the 1920s, most recently visited Ireland in the summer of 2022, with his partner Linda Purl, to trace his own Irish roots in Kilmovee, Co Mayo.
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He said: “When I grew up in Montana, I didn’t know what an international guest of Ireland was. My town had no more than 600 people.
"I didn’t know what the rest of the country America was, nor did I appreciate what my heritage was and what my historical significance was.”
Patrick has travelled to Ireland several times and he still recalls landing in Dublin in the 80s, saying he got a strange feeling when he landed at Dublin Airport.
He said: I think this is my sixth or seventh time here but I must say the very first time I came here in 1985, when I stepped off the plane – my son had the same experience 25 years later – and literally from my feet up, I felt this was a different feeling than I ever had ever. I don’t know why – it wasn’t like I was saying ‘Oh, I’m back on the homeland’.
“I just got off the plane and thought 'holy crap, this feels different' and years later, my youngest son Conor was here doing an internship at the Gate Theatre and he stepped off the plane and the first thing he told me when he got back home was ‘dad, I had the same feeling, there is something special’.”
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