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?
8. ABC in Belfast?
9. Strange noises from Norwegian lakes
Funny what you can find near Bundoran…
It seems that there has recently been a split in the ranks of IUFOPRA
(Irish UFO and Paranormal Research Association), which has lead to the
formation of UPRI (Ufo & Paranormal Research Ireland), seemingly
involving Dermot Butler and Karl Nally.
The original lead cast of IUFOPRA seem to be still enthroned, i.e. Pat
Delaney & Co. Blather hasn’t heard a peep from them in nearly two
years, since we received a badly written erroneous letter from them,
laden with spelling mistakes, accusing us of writing a nasty article
about them in a certain print publication. In fact, we had only
mentioned them once, and that was in Blather, and it was merely a
review of a conference they had organised in November 1997. This was
pointed out to them by return post, and we never heard a thing since.
But we digress…
Blather has received a photocopied *UPRI Newsletter*, issue 2, 1999.
The page has two subtitles – ‘Views herein are personal ones, and are
not “official policies” of UPRI’, and ‘Independent and objective
research’.
The newsletter deals with one story – with a large picture beside it,
of yes, you may have guessed it, *something* in a jar. UPRI seemingly
tracked down the story in the *Mirror* tabloid newspaper, after
hearing 2FM’s Ray D’Arcy joking about it on his breakfast show. We
haven’t seen the *Mirror* article, but UPRI tell us that it was on
June 15th, titled *Is This a Baby Alien?*, and penned by Robert Cullen
and Lynne Kelleher. The article told of a butcher, Gerry Condon, who
lives in Co. Donegal, who was driving south to his premises in Sligo,
and was passing by Finner Army Camp, between Bundoran and
Ballyshannon. Finner is situated at the mouth of the River Erne – a
waterway mentioned in the last issue of Blather…
The newsletter says that Mr. Condon saw a flash of light overhead, and
thought something had crashed, so he stopped and entered a field
beside the base. There he apparently found the ‘creature’, in a
hollow, covered in soot. He is said to have taken it to the local
Garda station where, unsuprisingly, they ‘could shed no further light
on the mystery’. It’s not really the kind of thing taught to
recruits in Templemore now is it? Oddly enough, Templemore *was* the
centre of attention in 1920, when in the home of Thomas Dwan, statues
and holy pictures began to bleed. The alleged phenomenon centred
around 16-year old Thomas Walsh (no, no relation). Templemore went
berserk, with thousands of pilgrims arriving from all over, including
from Britain. Charles Fort, in *Lo!* (1931), Part 1 Chapter 6, covers
the story in some detail, exploring other factors in the matter, such
as the War of Independence. But we’re digressing again, and wildly so.
The newsletter winds up by expressing doubts about the story,
especially the alleged labeling of the ‘creature’ by ‘a’ Belfast
University as “Alien embryo – origin unknown”.
Oddly enough… or perhaps not that odd at all, when this Blatherskite
was delivering a synopsis of the tale to our esteemed colleague, the
Hon. John Maguire, Mr. Maguire pointed out that one can purchase mass
manufactured ‘aliens in jars’ at several Dublin city centre retail
establishments, complete with “Alien embryo – origin unknown” labels.
In fact, ‘aliens and jars’ come in all kinds of wonderful shapes sizes
and pigments, as can be seen by the smattering of links foraged from
five minutes with a search engine. Buy one today!
Aliens in Jars:
http://www.alienwave.com/
http://www.nightmarefactory.com/alienmsk.html
http://www.telalink.net/~chamber/86150.jpg
http://locutus.ucr.edu/cool/Alien.html
Charles Fort, *Lo!*,Part 1 Chapter 6
http://www.aracnet.net/~fortean/lo106.htm or buy the book from the Blather bookshop…
Watching the Skywatchers (Review of IUFOPRA conference from ages ago)
http://www.blather.net/archives/issue1no27.html
‘EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE: A REALITY’
On a very wet Saturday 18th September, while mooching about the stalls
of the Dublin Food Co-op, who did we bump into but our old
acquaintance Eamon Ansbro of PEIR (Programme for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence Research), oft mentioned, if not criticised in this
publication. We had an affable enough discourse, even though he did
reassure me that there was an awful lot more to the ‘Alien Embryo’
story than meets the eye. Quite.
He was flogging a new 30-page booklet, *Extraterrestrial
Intelligence: A Reality*, co-written with his wife, Catherine. It
seems to be a form of concise autobiography, illustrating, as Eamon
told us, where he’s ‘coming from’ his background in meteorology and
astronomy, and how he got involved in the whole UFO thing. In essence,
it tells us where he *came from*, but not really where he’s *coming
from*, going no further to explain the leaps of logic that we notice
in many extraterrestrial claims, and thus leaving us none the wiser.
In fact, Eamon told us that the Roy Dutton’s ‘Astronautical Theory’ is
so complicated that he’s not surprised that others don’t understand
it.
Astronautical Theory is the methodology used by Ansbro, and others, to
‘predict’ UFO appearances along ‘flight paths’ criss-crossing the
Earth’s surface. Part 2 of *Extraterrestrial Intelligence: A Reality*,
however, seems to cover new ground. Written by Catherine Ansbro – an
acupuncturist, and Zero balancer – and titled *Relationship with
Extraterrestrial Intelligence – A Healthy Foundation*, a short
treatise on physical, environmental and spiritual well-being, an
interesting departure from traditional ufology. We’ve got to admit, we
did a bit of head-scratching over this bit, never before having come
across ufological documentation which advises the reader on health
and nutrition.
To purchase a copy of *Extraterrestrial Intelligence: A Reality* (we
paid the princely sum of IEP£3.00), write to:
P.O. Box 6284
Dublin 3
Ireland
See http://www.blather.net/archives2/issue2no32.html for more fun.
Dublin Food Co-Op:
http://www.clubi.ie/dfc/
BLACK RAYS!
Joseph Trainor’s UFO Roundup (Volume 4, Number 21, September 16th,
1999) reported – thanks to Northern Irish ufologist Miles Johnston –
that UFOs had been sighted over Ulster’s Lough Neagh.
Apparently – according to Johnston, on August 15th, around 11 p.m.,
telephones at Armagh Planetarium and RUC (police) stations in Northern
Ireland were ringing off the hook with reports of UFOs and ‘strange
phenomena’ over Lough Neagh. If we may quote; ‘according to Miles
Johnston, the flap continued for five straight days, ending on Monday,
August 22nd, 1999’.
Surely five days after the Sunday the 15th was Friday the 20th?
Besides, the 22nd was a *Sunday*. Good grief Miles, get your dates
right, please.
Anyhow, apparently each bunch of overflights “began at 11 p.m. each
night and ended at 4 o”clock the following morning”, with the alleged
sightings including “large rings of light, with inner rings, over
a several-hundred-square-mile area,” not to mention “groups of flying
discs flying in formation”, as well as a reported “U.S. Air Force
AWACS plane accompanied by two red triangular aircraft,” which “flew
over Northern Ireland at only 4,000 feet”.
As if that wasn’t mad enough, Johnston reports ‘”rays of black light”
streaming down from the night sky and “some illuminations
identical to the Aurora Borealis but due south” of Lough Neagh’.
Any readers in the North care to corroborate *any* of this?
– By the way, we would like to point out that the best of the annual
meteor showers, the Perseids, takes place between July 23rd and August
20th, the peak, or maximum of which was expected for August 13th, but
as *Astronomy & Space* magazine tells us, ‘don’t just view on the
night of the maximum. There are good Perseids to be seen for several
nights either side of Maximum date.
*Astronomy & Space*, August 1999
UFO Roundup, Volume 4, Number 21, September 16th,
1999 (http://216.71.21.191/roundup/v04/rnd04_21.html)
UFOS OVER ATHA CLIATH?
Blather was recently invited to a showing of a video of “UFOs Over
Dublin”, footage taken from somewhere, seemingly on the northside of
the city, possibly towards Fairview or Drumcondra, around the Royal
Canal. This little movie is apparently causing a fantastic frenzy
amongst UK-based UFO groups.
The footage, all taken at night (except a daylight reference
shot, for comparison), shows the skyline of the city, with a partially
illuminated tower crane, and Liberty Hall peeking above the buildings.
Several apparent light sources can be seen rising or falling over or
around Liberty Hall, passing into clouds, flying in formation parallel
with the river. Some are slow, some are fast…
It’s very impressive stuff, not least the voice recordings of the film
makers, whose hilarious cacophony of profanities seems to suggest that
they were genuinely convinced of what they were filming. If all of the
material had been taken on one night, we may have been more impressed
– instead it was filmed on the 29th and 31st of July, and the 1st and
2nd of August.
It has been pointed out to us by a colleague that the camcorder used
is *very low light sensitive*, and that the objects recorded may not
have been as bright as they appear on tape.
Blather would suggest – and we’re not alone in this suggestion – that
at least some of the objects are merely seagulls wheeling about above
the river, their feathers reflecting the strong floodlights trained on
buildings such as the Customs House.
Some of the footage, in particular the footage taken on the 29th of
July, shows one or two objects moving close to a floodlight within
*metres* of the film – apparently in the yard of the building that
they’re filming from. The objects then hover, just a little bit away
from the light… moths, anyone?
NEWS JUST IN – ABC IN BELFAST?
Some time ago – January of this year in fact, Blather talked about the
Belfast Telegraph’s coverage of an alleged Alien Big Cat (ABC)
on the loose in Co. Tyrone. Now, one of our northern Blatherskivers,
Iain Bryson, was in touch with the latest news from the ‘Belly Telly’.
As might realise, ‘alien’ in this sense means merely ‘out of place’,
rather than ‘extraterrestrial.
In a 27th September article by Martin Breen, it was reported that a
‘puma-like animal’ was on the loose in the outskirts of Belfast, and
the police had been warning people to stay away from it. Sightings had
taken place around a quarry on the Ballygowan Road at 5:50pm on the
26th, and again at 10:45 in a children’s play area in Ballygowan
village, six miles from the earlier sighting. Subsequent police
searches had been fruitless.
Witness reports suggest that the ‘dark black animal is between 6 and
10 feet long and four feet in height’, but the newspaper holds that
‘zoological experts’, including Belfast Zoo manager John Strong, have
been expressing some scepticism.
*Belfast’s big cat may be a shaggy dog…*, Belfast Telegraph 27th
September 1999
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Blather, *Furry Cat Stories*, January 8th, 1999
http://www.blather.net/archives2/issue2no34.html
STRANGE NOISES FROM NORWEGIAN LAKES
We recently received email from one Torfinn Oermen, mentioned a couple
of Blather issues from a year and a half ago, when he was criticising
Jan-Ove Sundberg’s claims of lake monsters in Lake Seljord.
Long-ailing readers will recall that this daft writer ended up on Lake
Seljord last year, and subsequently on Discovery Channel and Channel 4
in the UK and Ireland (see links below for details). Meanwhile,
Jan-Ove has released recordings, apparently made of *Selma*, the name
that seems to have stuck to the alleged monster in Lake Seljord. Read
all about, hear the recording… and make up your own minds!
http://www.bahnhof.se/~wizard/gust
And as if that wasn’t enough, GUST 2000 is already being wheeled out!
http://www.bahnhof.se/~wizard/gust/
__________________
From: Torfinn Oermen
I just discovered your articles about Jan-Ove Sundberg’s expedition to
Seljord, and too late or not I have to set matters straight.
Unfortunately I have no control over how I am quoted in the media. A
press agency can botcher a story completely. Of course I didn’t
personally debunk the “Suldal monster”, nor did I ever claim so. But
the “monster” was proven conclusively to be other than animal: People
rowed out to examine it closely. What looked like the slimy back of a
large animal was actually a huge mat of rotting sawdust and algae. The
mat was kept floating for a short time by an enormous bauble of
methane. The “monster” had been observed each spring for many years
before someone had the courage to take a closer look. I don’t know if
the “monster” was observed again later, and I never said anything
about it.
The 250 years spate of observations of serpents in Norwegian lakes
coincides with the increase in the sawmill industry, and it does not
seem far fetched that more lakes than Suldalsvatn owe their monsters
to fermenting saw dust. (Without the saw dust connection I agree my
arguments sound like gibberish.)
And I suppose that the press report also failed to mention that I am a
member of the International Society of Cryptozoology and have time
after time been presenting the “cryptozoological cause” in interviews
and public lectures… The press asked for my opinion regarding
Jan-Ove’s expedition since I am Norway’s only “public” and university
employed cryptozoologist. I wish Jan-Ove luck, but I am not
optimistic. – But to quote myself in numerous interviews: one is
allowed to hope, and I would love to be proved wrong in this.
Regards
Torfinn Oermen
__________________
*GUBU Norge*
http://www.blather.net/archives2/issue2no16.html
*A Monster Hunting We Will Go*
http://www.blather.net/archives/issue1no42.html
See *Layman’s Privilege* at:
http://www.blather.net/archives/issue1no43.html
