Twitter Irish has gone inter-galactic – thanks to a Canadian astronaut.

Former Canadian Royal Air Force pilot Cmdr Chris Hadfield has engaged in a Twitter conversation with a bit of Irish thrown in for good measure.

Cmdr Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space, made another little piece of history when he became the first person to participate in an exchange in Irish from outer space.

The Irish Times reports that Hadfield tweeted a night-time photograph of Dublin taken from the International Space Station (ISS) with a message written partly in Irish.

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The report says the Ontario-born flight engineer posted his tweet with the message: “@Cmdr_Hadfield: Tá Éire fíorálainn! Land of green hills & dark beer. With Dublin glowing in the Irish night.”

The 53-year-old first engaged the Irish twitter community last month when he tweeted a daylight photograph of Dublin.

He did provoke a storm of online responses when he admitted that he was unsure as to what Irish, Welsh or English port city he had just snapped.

The paper adds that, as with his first photograph of Dublin, his latest tweet attracted a great deal of online interest.

Some tweeters asked if his daughter was to thank for his Irish after he had participated in an ‘Ask me Anything’ session on Reddit on Sunday during when he revealed that his daughter was residing in Ireland.

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The paper reports that:

@CilliandeBurca tweeted “Maith Thú A Cheannasaí! Nice to see there's some Gaeilge in space! :-)”
 
@LaurenNiCuinn tweeted “is maith liom do cuid [sic] gaeilge. Go raibh maith agat!!!”
 
The Canadian Space Agency astronaut responded to his Irish followers: “Wow, I can feel the warmth of the Irish all the way up here - go raibh maith agaibh! I'll do my best to photo more cities as clouds clear.”

Here's the photo Hadfield tweeted: