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Irish language first as Canadian astronaut tweets as Gaeilge from space

Royal Air Force pilot Commander Chris Hadfield engages with Irish online community

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 6:56 AM

Updated Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 8:33 AM

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

Photo by Twitter

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.

More news on Irish technology here

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.

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:

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48 Comments

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seanomelb | Feb 25, 2013, 07:23 PM EST

Wee willy I bet If I walked into the GPO and asked for "Dha stampa mar se do holl e" I would obtain two stamps. You bigoted little ferret

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seanomelb | Feb 24, 2013, 07:37 PM EST

No smrnian he's not it just passess over your head and at your height that would not be hard.Irishnorth writes like a Magritte painting to surreal for you to understand.

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Will Hamilton | Feb 24, 2013, 02:15 PM EST

He may as well be trying to order stamps talking Irish or Swahili in the GPO!

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Smyrnian | Feb 23, 2013, 06:59 PM EST

IrelandNorth - Are you drugs? You make no sense.

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marlozaleskas | Feb 22, 2013, 04:20 PM EST

Nora. although Russell`s bl0g is really cool, last saturday I bought a new Lancia Straton from making $8671 this-past/4 weeks and-over, 10k this past munth. without a doubt it is the nicest work I have ever done. I started this 5 months ago and immediately started bringin in more than $72.. per/hr. I use this here great link,, *-- ℬuzz80.ℂOℳ --*

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IrelandNorth | Feb 22, 2013, 02:28 PM EST

A siege mentality is the price one pays for dubious title deeds. Like the wealthy in their pearly gated communities who end up imprisoning themselves due to their ill gotten gains. Karma will out! Like orthodox Jews bobbing and weaving at the western wall of the second Jerusalem temple, King William's men parade ad infinitum, like lost dogs chasing tails that cannot be caught. "Thought crime does not entail death. Though crime IS death!" George Orwell, 1984.

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Realist | Feb 22, 2013, 12:16 PM EST

warrenpoint: “we do not have to do that to prove our identity”? Lol….this whole website is a monument to your cultural insecurity and pathological need for attention from those you seem to hate (the British). I suggest you grow up before it’s too late.

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warrenpoint00 | Feb 21, 2013, 08:28 PM EST

Willy Hamilton, you paint a very pleasant picture, of a very endearing and simple people, the Irish .Not at all like the british of which you are a subject, that participates in murder ,rape ,sodomy ,flag waving beer drinking ,goofy bagpiping, public urination and church protesting ,all in a manner to proclaim their britishness on the twelfth day of July every year in that endearing island of Ireland.Why do you have to do that.?Inferiority, maybe, uneducated, low self esteem,no culture.I think you british guys are just jealous of the Irish William, we do not have to do that to prove our identity.Bye,bye Will.

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seanomelb | Feb 21, 2013, 07:43 PM EST

Any park would be far superior to your carnival of fools on the TWALFTH. Clowns wearing bowler hats and banging Lambegh drums. My grandsons could keep a better beat than those fools.

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Will Hamilton | Feb 21, 2013, 05:29 PM EST

Along with the illusion that Irish people talk, Irish Plastic Paddies are also programmed to assume that anyone "back home" (sic) who doesn't fit the Darby O'Gill image of Ireland must be from somewhere other than the Republic of Botched (1922 to present). Americans who live with the delusion of being Irish need to build themselves a fantasy amusement park island east of Queens. They can call it the Emerald Isle and fill it with red haired girls who wear knitted socks and go to Mass every Sunday. The annual festival could have coffin ship races, brown bread throwing contests and English bashing. Of course all this would be presided over by their Emperor the Pope who would deliver his annual address in Irish.

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IrelandNorth | Feb 21, 2013, 02:58 PM EST

Why aren't you posting As Gaelige?

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WoundedKnee | Feb 21, 2013, 02:20 PM EST

"The people who killed the Irish language, and who continue to wilfully ignore it everyday in Ireland, are the Irish." That may be unpalatable to lots of us, but it's true. As a columnist in today's Dublin Irish Times pointed out, this Canadian astronaut used more Irish in space than most Irish use in a year.

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seanomelb | Feb 20, 2013, 10:51 PM EST

Dearie me!! wee willy is now an expert on the Irish language the little orange turd.

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Searlit | Feb 20, 2013, 08:28 PM EST

I think some long overdue compassion is what's needed by the Irish, not continual browbeating, Woundedknee.

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Will Hamilton | Feb 20, 2013, 05:52 PM EST

The people who killed the Irish language, and who continue to wilfully ignore it everyday in Ireland, are the Irish. It's amazing how Plastic Paddies who delude themselves into something they're not can't handle anything that does not tally with the delusional version of Ireland they've been fed. Irish people do not speak Irish, don't want to speak Irish and will never in the future use it as a daily language. It's a dead limb that the Irish language Nazi's insist on dragging from one century into the next. If Ireland did not speak English it would have had a much harder time attracting foreign companies and emigrating from the failed Republic would have been even harder. The natives, bar the Irish language Nazi's, figured that out a long time ago. Those who want to speak it should pay for it instead of shoving the bill into everyone else's pocket.

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