Month: September 1997
Irish UFOs: Beginning To See The Light
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...
Blather on Tour around Ireland
Even though last week's Blather popped into everyone's mailbox without incident, this Blatherskite was not actually at the helm -- yes, of course I did write it, but at the time of mailing, I was mountainbiking around Achill Island, in Co. Mayo, visiting Sraheens Lough, which made front page news in 1968 with a photograph of the alleged 'Achill Island Monster'. Unfortunately the only copy of the photograph that I've come across is in the National Library in Kildare St., Dublin, on the June 1968 microfilm for the Evening Herald, and it's totally useless when copied. My travels also took me to Sligo, where I met up with the honourable Joe Harte with whom I journeyed to the valley of Glenade in Co. Leitrim where I photographed the 'Dobhar-Chú' gravestone of a lady by the name of Grace (a.k.a. Grainne, pronounced Grawnya) McLoghlin, apparently killed by a 'master otter' in...
Giant Snakes in South America
In yet another amazing report from Reuters, a 'black boa constrictor the size of two passenger buses slithered by' the Peruvian village of Nuevo Tacna, deep in the Amazonian jungle. This creature was allegedly 40 metres long and about five metres in diameter, felled trees, and left 'a ditch wide enough to drive a tractor through'. There were five witnesses, and three hundred people felt its passing as it made for the river Napo. The reports were treated with skeptism by Peru's national radio stations, and it was suggested that heavy machinery was misidentified. This idea was dropped when the local authorities pointed out that the jungle in the area was far too dense for such mechanical goings on. The mayor of Mainas 170 miles (270 km) from Lima, Jorge Chavez reckons that 'there really is something to the villagers' versions' of the story. As far as I know, boas...
The Princess Diana Conspiracy
"If Christ Came Again He Would Die in a Car Crash' - J.G. Ballard" Are you fed up with the 'news' recently? Blather did really intend to ignore the death of Princess Diana, but due to a phenomenon which Blather diligently (honest!) examined in 'One of Our Bombers is Missing' , that is, the mushroom cloud of conspiracy which surrounds every high-profile death, I was compelled to start sorting through the insane plethora of conjecture and speculation. For instance, by Sunday morning, Irish time (famous worldwide for its elasticity), I got wind of the fact that a new newsgroup, alt.conspiracy.princess-diana had already been propagating around Usenet. So far, the Royal Family, MI5, the IRA, the CIA, the Vatican, the Freemasons, aliens, Elvis, JFK, the MIBs, Rupert Murdoch, Hillary Clinton, Iranian terrorists, and even the paparazzi have been blamed for the deaths of Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed. Other theories...