Down-to-earth dad with the stellar career

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has wooed the Irish with his space tweets as Gaeilge. His son tells Jonathan deBurca Butler about his father’s journey from farm boy to fighter pilot

THE Irish language was given something of an unexpected boost in February when Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield tweeted as Gaeilge from the International Space Station. Posting a night-time photo of Dublin via his Twitter account, Cmdr. Hadfield added the words: “Tá Eire fiorálainn! Land of green hills dark beer. With Dublin glowing in the night.” Unsurprisingly, the tweet made headlines here and turned Cmdr Hadfield into something of a star on these shores.

As a result, he has received much grá and appreciation from his followers in Ireland and the tweets have kept on coming.