Photo: Irish Defence Forces / ADA/ Wikipedia
Dermot Butler and Carl Nally
We have outlined encounters between British and Irish police helicopters and unidentified aerial craft over South Wales, the Birmingham area and Dublin since the early 90s. The following article has been compiled from our data concerning Irish military involvement with UFOs.
In the early hours of 31 March 1993 six members of the Irish defence forces, on board a Dauphin helicopter, observed UFOs while flying from the Air Corps base at Baldonnell, near Dublin, to Finner Camp in Donegal. The observation occurred at an altitude of 1500 feet, ten nautical miles east of Mullingar, in the Irish Midlands. The unidentified craft were flying in a northwest to southeast direction.
Photo: Lough Owell, Mullingar (Garda Air Support Unit)
Commandant H. O’Keeffe, who was piloting the aircraft, and his co-pilot, observed a light being ‘turned on’ above their helicopter and in their ten o’clock position. The other members of O’Keeffe’s crew, having also observed the phenomenon through NVGs ( night vision goggles), were of the opinion that there were more than one craft involved, and that there were perhaps two or more, behind a leading object. Their observation went on for approximately two minutes. The pilot contacted Dublin ATC, which replied that it had no other traffic in that area.
When the Dauphin landed at Finner Camp, O’Keeffe phoned Shannon ATC to report his sighting. He stated in his subsequent written report to Defence Forces Headquarters (DFHQ) on the incident that Shannon informed him that it had already received several reports of the same unknown craft being observed by members of the public on the ground, from locations in Askeaton (Limerick) and Bantry (Cork).
Photo: Dauphin military helicopter (Image credit Mark Harkin)
Also, the formation had been observed by an Iona Airways cargo plane (Flight 971), which was crossing the Welsh coast when its crew overheard the Dauphin’s radio contact with Dublin ATC.
In parallel with this event, two Garda (police) officers near Askeaton noticed a large craft in the sky. It was a brightly-lit, disc-shaped object, which was coming from the direction of the Shannon estuary. They stopped their patrol car to get a better view, but within seconds the craft darted towards them, stopping and remaining stationary over their vehicle. The startled officers accelerated towards their station in Askeaton. The UFO followed their every move, maintaining its position over the patrol car for over five minutes until it flew off into the night sky as the lawmen reached the outskirts of the town.
Commandant O’Keeffe was probably informed about this particular incident when he contacted Shannon ATC. The presence of the UFO(s) was known to the Woodcock Hill radar facility, which served Shannon Airport. Our investigations indicated to us that the facility admitted that its system had detected unknown airborne traffic at the pertinent time.
Photo: UFOs over the Atlantic in 2019
On the same night, burning debris from the launch of a Russian satellite, Cosmos 2238, was widely reported in the skies over Ireland and Britain. This point was used by officialdom as a blanket ‘explanation’ for that night’s events. The launch of the space vehicle from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, however, in no way explains the fact that the alleged ‘debris’ was observed flying on myriad headings and at widely different times between 1 and 2 a.m. Nor does it explain the lengthy observation of the objects in the Dauphin helicopter case … and how on earth can space debris pace above a police car for several minutes?
One wonders if these mysterious craft were in fact observing the unfolding spectacle. Interestingly, peculiar aerial phenomena – some of them barely above ground level – were reported from RAF establishments in Britain in the same timeframe. (Gary Heseltine referred to this very point when addressing the April-May 2013 Citizens’ Hearings on UFOs in Washington, DC).
The observation of UFOs by Irish military personnel is one thing, but the actual, deliberate involvement of the military within the vicinity of a UFO is a more serious matter. Two cases from our files illustrate this, and leave no doubt whatsoever that the Irish military authorities have just as much interest in the UFO enigma as those of any other country.
In the early 1990s, Emlyn Lewis of County Cavan was astonished to see a military jet approaching a UFO. Lewis watched in amazement as a spherical object hovered in the sky, a short distance from his home. Suddenly a jet came into view, and it flew towards the craft. He thought that there would be a collision, but the UFO dropped like a stone. The jet carried on, while Lewis ran inside to inform members of his family. When they made their way outside, neither the UFO nor the jet was anywhere to be seen.
The Cavan incident was not the only occasion when an Irish Air Corps jet was involved with a UFO. In late September of 1995, newspaper reporter Jerry Minihane was enjoying a night out with some friends when he found himself caught up in a fascinating UFO incident.
The four pals went to a popular nightclub in Dublin’s coastal Portmarnock area, close to Howth, the site of peculiar aerial activity down through the years. (A police helicopter was tasked with investigating a UFO there in 2006. The authorities denied the incident occurred, yet we have a recording of the relevant radio transmission between the pilot and Dublin ATC ).
At the end of the night, the friends were taking a walk near the shore, when they noticed something in the sky approaching them, heading towards the Irish Sea. They watched as an electric-blue, egg-shaped object flew past them at low altitude, heading for the open water. Within moments, they lost sight of it in the distance.
Photo: Scene of egg shaped, electric blue UFO sighting in Dublin
The group members stood in utter amazement, asking each other what they had just seen. Moments later, there came the roar of a jet, approaching their position. A military Fouga aircraft shot along over the beach, following the track taken by the UFO. The aircraft was low enough for Minihane to note its tac number.
The next morning, the curious journalist phoned the Air Corps base at Baldonnell, but the desk officer on duty said that he knew nothing about what Minihane was asking, and that no further information was available. Undeterred, he requested that someone be made available to answer some questions. He was put through to a more senior officer who, unsurprisingly, denied any knowledge of the previous night’s events. Minihane then informed the officer that he had noted the aircraft’s tac number, which he then proceeded to quote to the military officer … who then suddenly became irate, then angry, with Minihane’s line of questioning – and his intimate knowledge of what had actually happened.
Minihane wrote up what had occurred, and subsequently published an article about these events in the Dublin-based Evening Herald, a national newspaper. When we later met and interviewed him, he openly admitted that despite his journalistic ambition to delve more deeply into the military’s involvement in chasing a UFO, he was wary of possible repercussions due to his continued investigation of the military’s role in this bizarre incident. Indeed, he left journalism shortly afterwards.
In the course of our research and investigation into the Irish military’s involvement with the UFO phenomenon, we contacted Colonel John Murray, Director of Intelligence at Dublin’s McKee Barracks. A reply from his office stated that a search of all files in the Directorate of Intelligence, including the archives, had been carried out, and there were no references to UFOs. Subsequently, we submitted a further request to the Air Corps headquarters, which was referred on to the Freedom Of Information office within the Defence Forces’ HQ. In response to our request, the Naval Headquarters informed us that it had no information or files in relation to the subject of UFOs.
We then directly filed a FOI request with the DFHQ. A ‘final decision’ by a colonel, P.N. Ryan, informed us that our request had been refused. How is it possible that they had “no information” on O’Keeffe’s sighting, for example, when he had filed a written report with Defence Forces Headquarters about it? We know that this statement was submitted by O’Keeffe because, unbeknownst to the defence intelligence hierarchy, we had already obtained a copy of it.
Through further intensive investigations, we discovered that through its military, the Irish government maintains an active, covert role in monitoring UFO activity. The data accumulated from these clandestine operations are maintained in secret files called the ‘3/Bar’ files series, the ‘3/Bar Confidential’ files series, and the ‘Departmental S’ files series. We also learned that these secret dossiers are held in the Military Archives in Dublin’s Cathal Brugha Barracks.
As long ago as 1981 and 1984, the subject of UFO sightings within the Republic of Ireland was discussed in Dáil Éireann, the country’s national parliament. On one of these occasions, the then minister for transport (and the future prime minister) Albert
Reynolds was tackled on the subject. Citing records from as early as 1962, he replied that eight cases had been investigated by various organs of the State. These agencies included the Garda (national police), Air Traffic Control Services, the Meteorological Service, and the Air Corps.
The latest of the incidents discussed by Reynolds had occurred in 1976. So, for fourteen years, at the very least, the government had been keeping files on UFOs – with eight having swallowed up resources by being merited as being serious enough to be officially investigated. Reynolds’ department officials had access to the pertinent information with which to fashion a cohesive response to a parliamentary question. Yet, years later, our requests for details from the government about its investigation files, which the above proves existed, were refused.
The above cases are discussed more fully in our first book, Conspiracy Of Silence: UFOs In Ireland. Since then, the Irish government has released its previously secret files on UFOs. First detailed in the Irish Times newspaper, we immediately sought, and received, a replica of what the periodical had just obtained. The thin folder contained Garda statements from eye witnesses to ‘flying saucer’ sightings in Kerry in early July 1947, but largely consisted of generic sightings, newspaper clippings, and so on, from 1947 to 1994.
The government actually gave the press – and then to us – a highly censored, sanitised version of what it actually has in its files. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that O’Keeffe’s 1993 written report to the DFHQ, about the Dauphin helicopter sighting, was selectively omitted. Nor was there any mention whatsoever of any of the 1962 to 1976 cases that were investigated by state agencies and then discussed in the national parliament five and eight years later. It is patently obvious that the well-oiled machine of official secrecy, despite promises of openness, continues to function efficiently to hide the truth.
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