In last week’s issue, ‘Blather on Tour‘, I reported the strange chttp://www.westcork.comase of what could have been defined as an harassment by a UFO, which took place between Killarney and Mallow, in south west Ireland. But on Friday morning, as the Blather entourage arrived amidst the cheering populace to the gates of Blather HQ, we were greeted by a delegation despatched by the honourable Mr. Shane O’Sullivan, a native of the fair region referred to above. I commanded one of my sycophants to unfurl the scroll, and clutching my monocle with my highly developed eye-muscles, discovered that the document indeed carried information of not inconsiderable portent.
Mr. O’Sullivan pointed out that a Killarney nightclub, ‘The Dannyman’ (Yes, that is the name), has an extremely powerful revolving light pointed in the easterly direction of Rathmore (the area of the apparent sighting). The UFO was seen at 1 a.m. on Saturday 30th of August, at least an hour before the nightclub is due to close for the night. If this is the cause of the UFO sighting, bear in mind that this incident isn’t the first time that nightclub outdoor lighting has been mistaken for something somewhat more paranormal or anomalous. Some reports from Belgium, for example, in the early part of this decade were attributed to such powerful lighting. In fact, I recall a case in Wexford (south east Ireland, reported by The People, a local paper) a few years ago where a family and some friends claimed to have been followed by a UFO for about 20 miles while driving from Wexford to Enniscorthy. The article stank of embellishment by the reporter, and a week later an article was printed explaining how a nightclub laser light playing along the clouds had caused the confusion.
Joseph Trainer, of UFO Roundup, has obligingly relayed enquiries to Chris Maher, who reported the Rathmore sighting, but alas, the Blather team are still sitting here watching the clock through a reversed astronomical telescope, hoping to hear back from Mr. Maher, as we would like to ask him more about the nature of his sighting, and if, at the time of the ‘encounter’, he was familiar with the recent spate of UFO reports in the region.
Also last week, I mentioned the bombing of the twin aircraft tracking domes on Mt. Gabriel, in West Cork. I blamed it on the IRA, whereas it was carried out by the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army) on September 28th 1982, who claimed that it was being used by NATO, and that it had been built with the aid of MI6 (This, you see, was in the days before European Community Structural Funds). The INLA intended to impress middle eastern terrorists, and took photographs of the capture and bombing of one of the domes. I would expect that they felt a bit stupid when the photographs failed to ‘come out’ and their propaganda campaign was ruined.
(Thanks to Luke Smith and Justin Mason. References also from ‘INLA: Deadly Divisions‘ by Jack Holland, Torc ISBN: 189814205X)
Of Planes and Prangs
Speaking of ‘spates’, warm on the tail of Blather 1.16 ‘We’re Scrambled Chaps, Grab your Brollies‘, there’s been a few recent prangs involving if-it’s-not-black-it’s-pretty-damn-dark budget aircraft, in particular the disintegration of an F-117A Stealth during an airshow in Maryland, and the crash of a B-1 bomber in Montana, not to mention accidents involving more conventional U.S. military aircraft, such as the collision of two F-16s off New Jersey, and the collision of German and U.S. transport aircraft in the South Atlantic. A theory concerning the recent ‘bad press’ surrounding the F117A and B-2 Stealth bomber to me by one Mr. John Conniffe which involved the ‘writing off’ of these horribly expensive aircraft as a bad idea, i.e. that the bad publicity was deliberate, so that the planes could be taken out of service. Another theory, somewhat whackier, which allegedly came from ‘Retired Air Force Colonel Donald Ware’ via Dr. Richard J. Boylan, concerns the use of anti-gravity devices which are supposed to power both the F-117A, B-2 and the Lockheed-Martin space shuttle. Unfortunately they apparently have to take off using conventional methods, before switching into ‘antigravity mode for extended cruising range, for lightning-fast manoeuvrability, and for shrouding the airframe in invisibility (by having its local counter-gravity field bend light around the airframe). The notorious extremely unstable lift and forward-motion of the F-117A is merely temporary, until it moves into antigravity mode, where independent field propulsion provides stability. {Unfortunately for the pilot who went down in an air show over Maryland, his Stealth fighter was in conventional jet-thrust mode at the time.)’
The rest of the statement lapses into ravings about ‘free electricity machines’, but some of Boylan’s comments are probably worth reading, even if they are pretty much the standard ‘there are things going on that we’re not being told about’ party line.
Boylan writes ‘The military-intelligence-weapons industry complex pursues parallel development of modernized conventional technologies for several reasons. Among these are: 1) to provide “national security” cover for/distraction from covert projects under development. NASA does the same, dazzling the peons with Shuttle missions to grow petunias in low gravity in orbit, while secret, undeclared military missions travel far into space; 2) to have some obsolescent military toys (like F-15s) to sell to friendly countries and keep most of them satisfied that they are in possession of the latest weapons systems; and 3) to feed the pork barrel of multi-billions spending in the defence industry sector which Congress so effectively.’
I’m sure there’s plenty of developing countries who would be more than happy to get their hands on ‘obsolescent military toys’, F-15s being a shining example. And as for growing petunias in low gravity, after keeping a cheese plant alive in the Blather palatial residence for over a year now, successful low gravity horticulture seems to be a rather miniscule feat.
Do Angels Dream of Bellybutton Fluff?
The illustrious Mark Pilkington of Magonia Magazine has now manufactured history by managing to guest-star in two consecutive Blathers, this week by finding mention of Angel Hair in the the San Francisco Chronicle of 22nd September. The 3ft stringy objects seen in the Santa Cruz sky which could have been described as unidentified floating objects, rather than flying, prompted this wonderful quote from Bob Benjamin, National Weather Service forecaster: ‘From a meteorological perspective, I can’t explain it’. Everything seems to be getting blamed, including pollution from fires to the weather phenomenon known as El Nino. For more about angel hair, see Brian Boldman’s article ‘Angel Hair: Conclusions Drawn from In Depth Research’ from ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ – a site we can no longer locate…
Dave (daev) Walsh
25th September 1997
