Year: 1999
Blather Doesn’t Care – An end of the pseudo-m*llennium special
As we are mere weeks away from the end of the year, Blather would like to make it know that *we don't care* about the (change of) millennium. We don't. Ok? However, we will discuss possible Irish meteorites, Wexford UFOs and other malarkey... 'Blather is here. As we advance to make our bow, you will in vain for signs of servility or for any evidence of a desire to please. We are an arrogant and depraved body of men. We are as proud as bantams and as vain as peacocks. "*Blather* doesn't care." A sardonic laugh escapes us as we bow, cruel and cynical hounds that we are. It is a terrible laugh, the laugh of lost men. Do you get the smell of porter?' - from the original *Blather*, issue 1, published in 1934 by Brian O'Nolan a.k.a. Flann O'Brien a.k.a. Myles na gCopaleen. More on Flann...
The Hellfire Club: Accidental Satanists
When first asked to speak at Fortfest, I thought I'd traipse through a subject close to my heart, the story of the 18th century Hell-Fire Clubs. What I didn't expect, in the months leading up to today, while I fooled myself into some form of pseudo-objectivity, was how close I myself would come to my subject of Accidental Satanism. While I can appreciate the works of Anton Lavey, the founder of the Church of Satan, enjoy the often hit and miss humour of Aleister Crowley, and wonder about young murderers who mysteriously become Satanists after reading Anne Rice novels, what truly fascinates me are those who become known as Satanists without ever having claimed such a title. I must have been about twelve years old when I would go and stay with my mother's sister in Tallaght, a sprawling suburb at the foot of the Dublin hills. My cousin, Jason,...
Alleged E.T. Embryo in Bundoran
DE EDITORIAL Some observant readers may notice that we don't release Blathers quite as regularly as we used to. This is due to a number of factors including other commitments, and a decision to publish Blather when we feel like it, rather than on arbitrary dates, e.g. weekly, and so aiming for quality rather than quantity. And so, it seems like months - nay, it *is* months - since we last touched on the subject of UFO reports in Ireland. In fact it's only a few issues back, but there's been a plethora of reports, media coverage and bizarre tales in recent times, inspiring Blather to comment on at least some of them. MALCONTENTS: 1. (Blather gives more stuff away) 2. (Blather gives more stuff away) 3. De Editorial 4. Funny what you can find near Bundoran... 5. 'Extraterrestrial Intelligence: A Reality' 6. Black Rays! 7. UFOs over Atha Cliath?...
The Water Wizards Part II – The Interview
Transcript from interview with Con Connor, Living Water Workshop, 20th July 1999. By Dave Walsh. How did you come across Living water? I was up at an eco-village in Clones, Co. Monaghan with some friends, and a man who has invented a device for putting Cosmic Energy into water appeared, Jonathan Stromberg, and he with him some Vortex Energisers, which were put on a table in the middle of the room, and being a dowser, a diviner, I quickly pulled out the pendulum, held them over the devices and I quickly started dowsing, and I was amazed at how strong they were. I'd seen things with huge energy before, concentrated energy, but these were phenomenally strong. I asked a few questions, and made a few suggestions, and was very shortly offered a dealership. A man named Graham Whitehead, who is part of the Living Water Workshop, came into the room...
The Water Wizards Part I – Schauberger
Formerly published in the now defunct 'Source' magazine in Autumn 1999, - daev explores why people are strapping spirals of copper to their water pipes, speaks to Con Connor of Ireland's 'Living Water Workshop', and discusses the works of Viktor Schauberger and his theories of vortex implosion. For those concerned about the state of both tap and bottled water available in Ireland, an organisation calling themselves the Living Water Workshop has been set up, with the ambition of achieving 'a shift in thinking about water as a living thing', through public workshops. They point out that although *all* living beings are dependent upon water (humans consist of over 70% water), we are strangely careless about the *quality* of the water that we ingest. As stated by Austrian visionary, environmental scientist, inventor, and discoverer of 'Living Water', Viktor Schauberger (1885-1958: Formerly published in the now defunct 'Source' magazine in Autumn 1999,...
Lake Monster: The importance of being an Erne Peist
The Sunday People of August 22nd provides us with the painful headline 'O'Nessie Makes a Splash - Mystery monster has made an Irish waterway its home!', along with a picture of the alleged peist (gaelic; worm). It comes courtesy of reporter Stephen Maguire, who, having laid hands on a photograph of it, breathlessly informs us that 'this is the first picture of Ireland's own 'Loch Ness' monster'. The photograph was taken by Sean Walsh (no relation to this writer), who was in a boat on the Lough Erne waterway, in Killykeen, Co. Cavan. One Claudia Westrich was swimming alongside, 'when she felt something pushing her down. She thought it was an oar from boat accompanying her on the swim but when she looked up the vessel was 5 metres away. She tried to get a good look at the creature but it dived under the water.' Oddly, Walsh is quoted...
Zen When? Tao Now!
Guest writer: Barry Kavanagh. I am informed that the Count O'Blather is currently "out to lunch" and "clinically dead" or somesuch. Not being one of the pundits of paranormality (or even quasinormality), I find myself ideally placed to take on this sinister holiday role of agent-provocateur. More about this later! This issue of *Blather* is devoted to a book called *The Tao is Silent* by a mathematical logician called Raymond M. Smullyan (Harper San Francisco, 1977). This is a "beguiling and whimsical" application of Chinese philosophy (mainly Taoism) to modern life in the Western world. However, as Smullyan makes clear in his preface, he came to Taoist writings through Zen-Buddhism and there is much of Zen in *The Tao is Silent*. Also, he writes that the book is a collection of "ideas inspired by Chinese philosophy" so on top of the Taoism and Zen there is a great big dollop...
Epiphany Weather – Aliens visiting Ireland
It's some months now since Blather last paid any direct attention to the curious, if somewhat tiresome, phenomenon of Irish ufology and reported UFOs. Truth be told, the respite was sorely needed. Still, duty-bound we return to the fray, however grudgingly. It is with a little pride and nagging sense of futility that we notice that we seem to be the only voice emanating from this island which takes a critical (yet amused) view of the actions of Irish ufologists and their subsequent newspaper coverage. Much of this reportage seems polluted with X-Files cliches, pointless 'facts', often providing us with little more than mere silly-season page-filler. A June 20th 1999, page 3 headline in *Ireland on Sunday* reads *ETs fail to show for big date*. We commend the author of the article, one Dara deFaoite, for his objectivity and avoidance of the usual sensationalist cliche and device. The story hangs...
The Dublin Ghost Bus Tour
At 19:30 hours on the 25th of May, this Blatherskite ended a headlong bicycle sprint across Dublin's humid inner city, arriving at O'Connell St. with barely enough time to leap aboard the Dublin Ghost Bus and wave his credentials, before the spectral vehicle lurched away into the evening. Operated by Dublin Bus, the city's public transport company, the double-decker Ghost Bus cuts a curious jib as it trundles about the backstreets in its livery of blues, purples and black, with darkened or curtained windows. Inside the bus, the driver and assistant are dressed in normal Dublin Bus uniforms, but the decor is dark and decorated with prints of the Irish Hell-Fire Club and Bram Stoker. Upstairs - where the punters sit - is adorned with red velvet curtains and paintwork that seems to unconsciously suggest that 'Molly' - as the bus is known - is more flesh and blood that...
Unconventional Means Part 2
Having savoured the delights of Saturday night London, and after crept into my bed with the sun well above the horizon, this Blatherskite was in rag-order by the time he stumbled into the Commonwealth Institute on Kensington's High St., a little too late to barge-in and search for the thread of Jan Bondeson's 11 o'clock 'Basilisks, Vegetable Lambs, Stuffed Mermaids and Other Monsters and Marvels from Old Natural History', or Daniel Wojcik's 'From Spirit Photos to Apocalyptic Polaroids'. (Image of Sergio Della Sala) *Tardy* If we hadn't been so tardy, we would have lurched into the latter, familiar as we are already with vegetable lambs, and Bondeson's *A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities* (I.B. Tauris, 1997, ISBN 1-86064-228-4), and intrigued by what Wojcik had to say... A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities (Amazon.com) A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities (Amazon.co.uk) *Wry Grins* Instead we managed to make it to see Ted Harrison's 'Pre...