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EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE ASTRONAUT, Chris Hadfield, is in Dublin at the moment as part of his new mission as an Irish ‘tourism ambassador’; tourism bosses have signed the Canadian up for a five-day whistle-stop tour of of some of the island’s major sights and attractions, with one eye on his worldwide fanbase and million-plus Twitter followers.
And whileTheJournal.ie predicted this morning that it wouldn’t be long before a picture of the space hero knocking back a pint of the black stuff landed in the nation’s newsrooms — we have to admit, it happened a little sooner than expected (he hasn’t even made it to the Guinness Storehouse yet).
While he’d probably have much preferred a nice glass of Tang*, in all likelihood the Guinness-related photo-op is an implicit part of the deal if you happen to sign up as the figurehead of an Irish tourism marketing campaign.
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Colonel Hadfield and his wife are still due a visit to St James’s Gate — while tomorrow he’ll be signing his book at the RDS, before paying a visit to the Young Scientist Exhibition at the Dublin 4 venue.
The Hadfields will be heading north after their Dublin sojourn, visiting Armagh and the Glens of Antrim, and well as Titanic Belfast. In Donegal, they’ll be stopping off at the Inishowen Peninsula.
This afternoon, he was at the Mansion House in Dublin, where, before entertained Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn and guests with a song on the guitar — Hadfield also took some time out to pose with a ceremonial sword and make a Dublin fire officer look very nervous…
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