'A lovely couple': Dallas and Happy Days stars visit iconic Cork City bar

Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl stopped by Cork’s Hi-B bar while touring Ireland for a festive pub documentary

Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl in the Hi-B. Picture: The Hi-B/Facebook

Dallas star Patrick Duffy and Happy Days actor Linda Purl have been on a tour of Ireland and recently made a stop at one of Cork City's most iconic pubs.

The pair, who have been in a relationship since 2020, popped into the famous Hi-B bar while filming a documentary about Irish pubs.

The TV stars previously visited Ireland in 2022 to trace Duffy’s Irish roots and to film the pilot episode of a new TV series.

Duffy shot to fame in the late 1970s and 1980s when he played Bobby Ewing in the hit American soap Dallas. Purl is best known as Ashley Pfister, Fonzie's girlfriend, in the US sitcom Happy Days.

Hi-B owner Rachel O’Donnell said the duo are filming a documentary for RTÉ on family-run bars in Ireland and they "are visiting about seven or eight pubs across the country".

Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl with Hi-B owner Rachel O'Donnell.

"[Duffy] grew up in a pub in Montana, and his people are from pub stock in Sligo," she said, hailing him as a "very nice man".

Rachel explained that she got a phone call from the production company a few months ago asking if they would like to be a part of the documentary.

"I said absolutely, we would of course!"

She said the pair "really enjoyed their time in the Hi-B".

"They could not have been any nicer, really nice, really polite, really entertaining.

"They're such a lovely couple, he's a very nice man, very polite, very demure. Very unassuming actually, really professional, just really nice.

"We were there for about four hours, we brought some of our regulars in as well.

"He was looking for old stories on Ireland, old stories on the pub, our no-phone policy, and I suppose what troubles Irish pubs are having at the moment. That was really the length of it."

She said Duffy told them about his son having a pub in LA and that he could not have been more down to earth.

And did they enjoy a pint themselves?

"They were working, it was literally Ballygowans all round," Rachel laughed.

The Hi-B, or the Hibernian Bar, is renowned for being one of the smallest pubs in Cork.

Located on Oliver Plunkett Street, the bar has become synonymous with its mobile phone ban, with staff encouraging punters to enjoy conversation and each other's company instead.