Patrick Dempsey received a very special gift before he left Ireland on Friday.
The Hollywood actor spent the summer in Wicklow and Dublin – where he filmed the sequel to Disney’s Enchanted alongside Amy Adams, Maya Rudolph, Idina Menzel and James Marsden.
Before heading home, the Grey’s Anatomy star visited the Inis Meáin Knitwear factory on the Aran islands, and was gifted a Michael D. Higgins tea cosy by one of the employees.
Anne Howard, who created the tea cosy, told the Sunday World: “He came out and wanted to meet the workers.”
“He came out and spent the whole day, he pottered around the factory. He wanted to know what everybody did and what part everybody played and then we all went outside and had all these photographs.”
“He chartered a plane and came out on a day trip, he came out in the morning and left around teatime.”
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She continued: “I gave him the tea cosy and I didn’t know if he knew what a tea cosy was. He said, ‘oh I do, I drink tea’ and he had seen the cosies in Wicklow when they had gone for a coffee or whatever. He was delighted with it.”
“I explained to Patrick who Michael D was and his interest in the arts and TG4 and so on. He was quite interested.”
Gushing over the actor, Anne added: “He seems very genuine, interested in people, the place and had a genuine sense of awe about the island and the people and craft, a very nice, intelligent, warm guy and very well spoken.”
Guess he's now Dr McTea-my!https://t.co/4vYewttIKA
— Sunday World (@sundayworld) August 8, 2021
Patrick moved to Ireland in May, to shoot the highly anticipated Disenchanted film – which is coming to Disney+ next year.
The majority of the film was shot in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow – which was transformed into a magical village for the duration of filming, and became a popular tourist spot.
Filming wrapped in the magical town last month, and the cast then moved to the RDS in Dublin to film some green screen scenes.
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Patrick visited a number of tourist attractions across the country during his time in Ireland – including The Book of Kells in Trinity College, Powerscourt Estate and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
He then spent his final day in Ireland visiting the Purple House Cancer Support Centre in Bray.
Sharing a photo from his visit on Instagram, the 55-year-old wrote: “My final and quite possibly most impactful day in Ireland. Visiting the @purplehousecancersupport.”
“Grateful for the work they do each and every day to support those affected by cancer. Felt very at home here.”
The actor founded his own cancer support facility, called the Dempsey Center, back in 2008 after his mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1997.
Before leaving for the airport, Patrick posed for some selfies with fans outside the Merrion Hotel in Dublin.
