‘Just because I brought Paddy’s tin whistle home from space, it doesn’t mean there’s not a piece of him still out there,’ says Nasa astronaut -…

A Nasa astronaut who brought a tin whistle which once belonged to the late Chieftains legend Paddy Maloney has said he was the kind of guy that once hes been somewhere hes always going to have a presence there.

ady Coleman posted a photo of Paddys tin whistle looking down on earth from the International Space Station (ISS) after the news broke of his death on Tuesday.

Speaking to Independent.ie, Ms Coleman said: Just because I came home, and I brought the whistle home, doesnt mean theres not a piece of Paddy out there in space.

In 2011 Ms Coleman travelled to the International Space Station on a six-month mission and said she had to be very careful about what she brought with her.

Taking something to space is very personal. We dont get very much room to do that and theres a certain amount of trust involved. It has to be something that agrees with the space mission, which is that even though only a few of us get to go and explore, we bring other people with us and that why were allowed to bring these kind of things.

The whistle and the flute were both part of a very official allocation where we get to bring things with us that will help people on Earth to understand what we do up there and why we go and hope that they can see themselves up there too, she said.

The whistle and flute in question belonged to Paddy and his Chieftains bandmate Matt Molloy.

Ms Coleman said when she asked the two musicians what they would like her to bring for them, they both selected items which were close to their hearts.

[Paddy] chose the tin whistle because its so characteristic of him. He liked these generation tin whistles and theyre really not very expensive. Everyone can kind of go and buy one, so I think he liked that he was sending something not so very precious and something that everyone could play up to space.

I also brought an E Flat Irish flute given to me by Matt Molloy. That type of flute is like a treasure of Ireland and I think he felt like it belonged to Ireland and by sending that he was bringing other flute players with it, she said.

Ms Coleman who was immortalised on an Irish stamp in 2019 has always been a fan of Irish music and said its about making a community whether youre in a pub or sitting on a bench or youve gone to the space station.

She met Paddy years earlier through his son Padraig who was an intern at Nasa. She began playing music with Padraig and others from Nasa, including another astronaut famous in Ireland, Chris Hadfield.

Mr Hadfield and Ms Coleman, who played in a folk and Celtic music group called Bandella, were invited to play at the Lorraine Celtic Music Festival in France at Paddys request.

Ms Coleman said: Paddy was all about family, family for music and also for family.

She said the support he gave his fellow musicians and the sense of community which he always strived for was epitomised when he joined the band on stage in France.

He goes, oh no heres the deal, were playing together. But when youre playing and Paddy Maloney starts into a solo you cant help but take your whistle down and stop, but he looked me right in the eye and took his whistle down as if to say if youre not playing, Im not playing.

For me he really had a way of making every stage the site of family meeting, she added.

Following the announcement of Paddys death, Ms Coleman sought to immortalise him one more time by posting the image of his tin whistle on Twitter.

With the image she wrote a commemorative message saying: I loved playing Paddy Moloneys tin whistle on the ISS while floating/watching Earth go by. Paddy had the rare ability to connect w/ people across the globe & I treasured our time together. My heart is w/ his family & musical family everywhere-he/his music will forever be missed.

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'Just because I brought Paddy's tin whistle home from space, it doesn't mean there's not a piece of him still out there,' says Nasa astronaut -...