Blather this week is a tasty brew of the latest on the never ending stream of madness currently pouring out of south west Ireland…
Flapping in the wind
Just recently, Blather was fortunate enough to exchange information with a staff member of RTE about the current Bantry (Co. Cork, Ireland) UFO flap. Just when Blather had its back turned, that is, whilst in the Netherlands conducting urgent business of international importance, RTE had given news coverage to the Bantry UFOs.
RTE’s information was augmented by other accounts, from Blather’s Men In Bantry, and from the completely senseless ITV documentary, ‘We Are Not Alone’. As a result, we now have a compilation of confusing and contradictory codswallop, which so far leaves us none the wiser. RTE interviewed Alan Sewell and Eamon Ansbro, the former is a member of the Irish Centre for UFO Studies, and the latter told RTE that he was now in contact with the ‘Aliens’, and that (wait for it) they are 4′ to 5′ bipeds. Surely a revelation of world shattering importance or should we say, impotence.
My RTE person told me more. . . they have personally worked in local radio in the Kerry region over the last few years, and last year, following an on-air phone discussion with an individual claiming to have seen a UFO of some sort, the phone was ringing non-stop for a week, such was the deluge of subsequent reports from dozens of people suddenly unafraid to come forward.
The reports came from the Kenmare area (Co. Kerry), which is just north of Bantry, expanding the apparent sightings area to a large patch of countryside in between the two towns.
When Blather asked for the personal opinion of the RTE person, they declined to comment, although Blather would readily admit, there was a noticeable veneer of skepticism in their tone. They burst out laughing an observation was voiced…
On the same day, Blather received a message from one of Blather’s Men In Bantry, telling of sighting made by a Dublin-based commercial traveller of a large object ‘four stories high with flames coming from it’. Typically enough, he thought he was going nuts, until all the other reported sightings were made known to him.
As for the TV documentary ‘We Are Not Alone’, due to messy TV scheduling, Blather managed to miss the piece concerning Bantry, and to be honest, would have been as well off missing the rest too. Assurance by reliable types indicated that we didn’t miss much except Mr. Ansbro sitting in a field massaging crystals, and people on a street somewhere making inane or insane comments about aliens.
Lady
Last week, we got wind of the existence of a Bantry lady, affectionately known as ‘The Witch’, who, for some reason beyond my current data, is barred from various local hostelries, and at whom the big finger is being levelled for being the perpetrator of the majority of the local UFO sightings. However, on Thursday last, June 26, and on Saturday, June 28, UFOs were seen coming from the south, with a flashing light sequence of white-red-green. (Would it be regarded as unforgivable cynicism to point out that the navigation lighting on aircraft is red for port, green for starboard, and a flashing white light – please do not hesitate to correct Blather if we err on this matter).
Unconfirmed reports stated that RTE staff apparently saw ‘something’ but didn’t get it on film. Curiously, many of the witnesses arrived in Bantry for the weekend, because they were expecting a ‘visitation’. Again, forgive our rather overbearing skepticism, but how in the name of all that is good and unholy did they know?
This Blatherskite is sorely tempted to travel to West Cork to see just what is going on down there, in the meantime the current hypotheses have to be considered:
Is it tectonic strain, producing ‘earthlight‘ phenomena?
Could it be meteorites or some other form of naturally occurring heavenly phenomena – localised and very punctual?
Or is it, unlikely as it may seem, unofficial military flyovers?
Something in the water supply?
Mass hysteria or hallucinations? (As Robert Anton Wilson rhetorically puts it: ‘How many people does it take before a mass hallucination isn’t a mass hallucination anymore?’)
A bizarre hoax?
Witnesses seeing what they *want* to see or reporting what they wanted to see?
Religious visitations?
Leprechauns?
Lighthouses?
Nightclub laser lights?
An Irish Tourist Board promotion?
The ravings of unbalanced individuals?
Authentic extraterrestrial activity?
Something else entirely?
Dave (daev) Walsh
3 July 1997
