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  • State Files

    Forget the skies – look to the files for alien activity

    ET beware – Irish military intelligence is keeping a wary eye out for any alien invasion.

    Newly-released state files reveal that G2, the Defence Forces' secretive military intelligence unit, has been monitoring all reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) over Ireland.

    One file, updated in 1982, focused on sightings of suspected UFOs over Kerry, Meath, Dublin and Kildare.

    The two major sightings listed were over Dublin Bay and the Macgillycuddy Reeks in Kerry.

    The former involved a cigar-shaped object spotted by Dublin woman, Pat Laffan, over Howth's Lambay Island.

    The RNLI said there were no marine flares fired that day.

    The second incident was a group of glittering objects, all flying in a V-formation, spotted by a pilot and his five passengers as they flew from Farranfore to Dublin.

    Air traffic control in Shannon told the worried pilot that there were no other aircraft in the area on their monitors.

    G2 also took particular interest in a Dublin-based organisation, Spectrum, which was logging and investigating all such UFO sightings over Ireland.

    Spectrum's work was also supported by a British peer, the Earl of Clancarty, who claimed that western governments were keeping secret files on UFOs.

  • #2
    I suppose there was (is) always the risk that a UFO could be a military flight by a foreign air-force. Any visual sightings of a F117 in the 80's would certainly not have been backed up by a radar plot at Dublin or Shannon ATC, and would have been denied by the USAF.
    'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
    'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
    Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
    He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
    http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

    Comment


    • #3
      I remember the skies being very busy in the early 80s. Alien landings were common.

      By pure coincidence, Most of the cast of "Glee" have been spawned shortly after these alien landings.


      Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

      Comment


      • #4
        Thatcher's snub

        BRITISH Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to use Air Corps helicopters during a visit to Ireland, forcing the government to spend IR£8,063 on chartering special choppers.

        The revelation came as documents in the State Archives detail discussions between the Departments of the Taoiseach and Justice over who should pay the bill. Mrs Thatcher visited Ireland from December 7-9, 1983, to meet with Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
        BRITISH Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to use Air Corps helicopters during a visit to Ireland, forcing the government to spend IR£8,063 on chartering special choppers.

        Comment


        • #5
          I think it was the absence of twin engine types that was the issue.


          Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

          Comment


          • #6
            [QUOTE=Rhodes;406294]Thatcher's snub



            It wouldn't be the first snub. Ted Heath, while treading water having been capsized near Fasnet waved away an Irish heli preferring to tread some more while waiting for the RAF. 1979 I think.

            Comment


            • #7
              Watched as Thatcher landed in the gardens of Dublin Castle in a Wessex back in the day, always wanted to see one up close. were they Single or double engine.???

              Comment


              • #8
                2 Rolls Royce Gnomes sit in the Nose of a Wessex.


                Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

                Comment


                • #9
                  [QUOTE=Battletour;406302]
                  Originally posted by Rhodes View Post
                  Thatcher's snub



                  It wouldn't be the first snub. Ted Heath, while treading water having been capsized near Fasnet waved away an Irish heli preferring to tread some more while waiting for the RAF. 1979 I think.
                  Another Urban Myth.

                  Heath made it back to the UK...in his Yacht...Morning Cloud V.

                  He wasn't picked up by any helicopter...Irish...or otherwise.
                  'History is a vast early warning system'. Norman Cousins

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Rev William McCrea 'urged air strikes on Republic'

                    A democratic Unionist MP wanted the British government to launch air strikes on the Republic in the 1980s.

                    William McCrea also called for bombing raids on republican strongholds in the North, according to official papers.

                    Rev McCrea wanted "Libyan-type strikes" against Dundalk and Drogheda in the Republic, as well as Crossmaglen and Carrickmore in the North.

                    He called for the attacks in April 1986, just days after the US government had bombed Libya. At least 100 people died after planes bombed targets in the capital Tripoli and the Benghazi region.

                    The extraordinary demand is discussed in previously classified British government papers.

                    The documents, held by the Public Record Office, have been released under the 30-year rule.

                    One memo reports on the DUP annual conference in Belfast on April 19, 1986.

                    Welcome

                    Noel Cornick, an official at the NIO's Political Affairs Division, wrote that staff from the division had not been welcome at the conference.

                    His briefing paper appears to be based on a mixture of press reports and briefings from party insiders.

                    It reports: "Rev William McCrea urged Libya-type strikes against Dundalk, Drogheda, Crossmaglen and Carrickmore."

                    The memo noted that another senior DUP member, Gregory Campbell, made an "extravagant contribution" when he called for "even the foundations of Maryfield to be demolished".

                    Maryfield was the Belfast base for officials from the Republic's Department of Foreign Affairs.

                    Rev McCrea, a Gospel-singing Free Presbyterian minister, is known for his hard-line views.

                    He served as DUP MP for Mid-Ulster between 1983 and 1997, and has been MP for South Antrim since 2000. In 1996 he was criticised after sharing a platform at a Portadown rally with LVF leader Billy Wright.
                    A democratic Unionist MP wanted the British government to launch air strikes on the Republic in the 1980s.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Oh well, at least he wasn't looking for the Yanks to do it - they would have ended up bombing Iceland...
                      'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
                      'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
                      Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
                      He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
                      http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        UVF claim Haughey execution approach

                        "In 1985 we were approached by a MI5 officer...he asked us to execute you," so read a letter purportedly penned by the UVF and sent to the Taoiseach Charlie Haughey in August 1987.

                        After 30 years it has been released in the State Papers published today.

                        The correspondence signed by Capt W.Johnston makes the sensational claim that the UVF had been supplied with details of Mr Haughey’s cars, his trips to Farranfore airport in Kerry, his private yacht, the Celtic Mist, plus aerial photographs of both his homes in Kinsealy in north Dublin and Inishvickillane off the Kerry coast.

                        Charlie Haughey’s son Seán has revealed that his family was aware of a threat from the UVF around this time and it was taken seriously.

                        So much so that army naval divers were even deployed to Dingle to inspect the Celtic Mist and ensure a bomb was not placed beneath the famous yacht.

                        The letter states too that the UVF were asked to accept responsibility if Mr Haughey was killed but they refused saying: "We have no love for you but we are not going to carry out work for the Dirty Tricks Department of the British."

                        Explaining the ‘dirty tricks" reference the letter writer alleges that the UVF killed 17 men based on information supplied by British intelligence agencies between 1972 and 1985.

                        "MI5 were double crossing us all the time we were working with them. We executed some of our best men believing them to be traitors. Jim Hanna was killed as a result of information given to us by MI5. Hanna was totally innocent and we killed one of our best volunteers."

                        The letter says that MI5 also supplied the UVF with detonators "which they had set to explode prematurely," as happened during the attack on the Miami Showband near Banbridge in 1975.

                        In a long list of dramatic allegations about British intelligence agencies the letter also says that these agencies will supply foot-and-mouth disease or swine fever to anyone who would release it in the Republic of Ireland.

                        "They plan by doing so to destroy Éire’s economy and to make the Éire Government increase border security."

                        Border incursion to Mullingar....

                        Back in the days of the hard border, controversy over security force incursions across the border regularly erupted.

                        In December 1987, the Department of Foreign Affairs contacted the British authorities to ask them about reports of a British Army incursion south of the border.

                        The British authorities responded that they were "greatly embarrassed" by the incident involving a pilot who had just arrived in the North.

                        Before being sent on a surveillance exercise in a beaver aircraft, the pilot asked his commanding officer if he was "cleared for the border".

                        The superior officer responded that the pilot was cleared, meaning that the aircraft was cleared to fly within 2km of the border.

                        The British side said that the pilot in question thought border clearance meant that he could fly over the border.

                        The pilot "honestly thought he had permission to fly anywhere in the republic". He was since "firmly disabused" of this notion.

                        The pilot flew as far as Mullingar, an incursion 40 miles south of the border.

                        The Irish authorities questioned the nature of briefing given to pilots before they came to Ireland and "questioning how the pilot, even if he had totally misunderstood the clearance received from his superior officer could possibly have thought that his surveillance task should involve flying over counties Louth, Meath and Westmeath?"

                        The Department of Foreign Affairs telex released today concludes: "I expressed incredulity that any British Army pilot could possibly think that he was free to fly at will in our airspace. The British side repeated their embarrassment at the whole affair and indicated that the pilot in question had been spoken to in very strong terms."....
                        RTÉ's Political Staff trawl through the confidential State Papers which have been kept under lock and key for 30 years until today.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Proposal to withdraw Irish troops from Lebanon

                          Minister for Finance John Bruton advocated the withdrawal of Irish troops from Lebanon in January 1987 for financial reasons.

                          Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was established.

                          From then the Defence Forces had an Infantry Battalion of approximately 540 personnel in Lebanon, which rotated every six months.



                          Documents released today show how the then finance minister argued that on financial grounds there was "a strong case for withdrawing the Irish contingent from UNIFIL."

                          He noted that "Irish participation in UNIFIL constitutes a cost to the Exchequer, as the normal home pay and allowances of the permanent Defence Forces must be taken into account.

                          The recoupment rate of $600 per man per month was no longer adequate to recoup the extra costs of the overseas allowances paid to the Defence Forces personnel on UNIFIL duty."

                          A memo prepared by the Department of Finance on 19 January 1987 concluded: "For financial reasons, therefore, the Minister for Finance would favour Irish withdrawal from UNIFIL or, at least, a significant reduction in the strength of the Irish contingent at the next rotation of troops in mid-April 1987."

                          There were mixed views during a Cabinet discussion about Irish participation in UNIFIL on the same date.

                          The death of Corporal Dermot McLoughlin nine days earlier had deepened concerns around the security of our UNIFIL personal.

                          A government memo details that Corporal McLoughlin was killed when a round fired by an Israeli tank struck his post.

                          All of the circumstances pointed to "the incident being a deliberate and unprovoked attack."

                          Minister for Defence Paddy O’Toole was "gravely concerned about the safety of Irish troops" in the area.

                          Minister for Foreign Affairs Peter Barry said that a decision to withdraw "would do a disservice to our international reputation."

                          He pledged to maintain contact with the Israeli authorities to ensure maximum restraint and to press the US to use its influence over Israel.
                          RTÉ's Political Staff trawl through the confidential State Papers which have been kept under lock and key for 30 years until today.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            ....US Training Rejected

                            Documents show the government refused a US offer of $50,000 to pay for members of the defence forces to attend military courses in America in 1987. The Department of Foreign Affairs believed the move would require an exchange of notes, and this would amount to an international agreement.

                            The State Papers also say there was controversy about pay and conditions for members of the Defence Forces at the time. Army officers rejected a pay deal announced by the Government.

                            The Minister for Defence expressed concern that troops had been canvassed by military officers who were highly critical of the award on offer.
                            ....US Requests Airspace Rule Change

                            Throughout the period 1988 and 1989 there was concern in the Department of Foreign Affairs about a suggestion from the Taoiseach to ease restrictions on US flights using Irish airspace.

                            The Department warned the Taoiseach’s Office that any change to current policy would mean that, arms, ammunition and explosives could be carried freely on US planes flying over Ireland.

                            It stated too that this country would not know whether or not nuclear arms were aboard these planes.

                            The Department of Foreign Affairs said there were strong arguments against this course.

                            However, it said the main argument for accepting the US position was that it would make the administration in Washington better disposed in relation to visas for Irish emigrants.
                            Armed Military on Cross Border Trains

                            A file from 1979 released today shows that a senior official in the Department of the Taoiseach believed that the idea of having armed military personnel on all cross-border trains should be examined.

                            The official wrote that this would require trains to stop at the border to allow the Irish army get off the train, and it would then be boarded by British soldiers.

                            But the document says that the lives of passengers could be put in danger if military parties exchanged gunfire will illegal organisations attempting to hijack the trains.
                            The State Papers from 1989 were dominated by concerns about The Troubles and involvement in international diplomacy.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Cobh's 'military' potential and nuclear dumping in Donegal: concerns about Ireland at end of Cold War

                              US officials conveyed their worries about a Cobh shipyard to the Taoiseach in 1989.

                              US OFFICIALS FRETTED that a former dockyard in Co Cork could have been used by the USSR’s navy at the end of the Cold War.

                              State papers show that a former official at the US embassy in Dublin, Dean Curran, contacted the Taoiseach’s office in May 1989 to relay US worries about the possible use of the Verolme Dockyard at Rushbrooke, near Cobh, by Russia “for military purposes”.

                              The Dutch-owned shipyard had closed five years previously following the collapse in the global shipbuilding industry at the start of the 1980s.

                              According to a note prepared for the Taoiseach, released this week under the 30-year State papers rule, Curran sought to pass on “worries which ‘some persons’ in Washington had conveyed to him” following a state visit by Charles Haughey to Moscow.

                              It read:

                              "These concerned, essentially, the Verolme dockyard in Cork and the possibility that it might be used for military purposes."

                              "He said that it was well established that the Russian “fishing” fleet in the North Atlantic and elsewhere indulged in many activities which would not be described, by the widest stretch of the imagination, as “fishing”."

                              The note stressed that the comments were not official or a representation, but simply an attempt by US officials to share their concerns about the future use of the dockyards.

                              In response, the official who prepared the note said they would note what Curran had said and assured him that Irish neutrality “was something that did not work in one way only”.

                              There is no evidence that the USSR ever used the dockyard before the end of the Cold War later that year.

                              The yard was bought by Cornelius Verolme in the late 1950s to assist in the development of the Irish shipping industry. It opened in 1960 and saw 33 ships built during its 24 years in operation, with over 1,500 employed at the yard at its peak.

                              The site is now used by the Doyle Shipping Group, who removed the iconic twin cranes used by Verolme to build ships last year.

                              Nuclear dumping

                              The same year, the Department of Foreign Affairs was also forced to make reassurances about a possible nuclear situation at the other end of the country.

                              In June, Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher contacted Minister for Foreign Affairs Gerard Collins after one of his constituents wrote to him about their fears that chemical weapons could be “indiscriminately” dumped off the coast of Donegal following the end of the Cold War.

                              In a letter on 7 June 1990, the individual claimed that “big belligerents” would continue to dump weapons near Ireland’s coasts “as they have done for the past forty-odd years”, and also told Gallagher that the nuclear powers would “deny everything” when they did.

                              They further called on the government to publicly ask nuclear powers for compensation for their actions “at the very least”, adding:

                              "The Fianna Fáil government would need to take steps immediately to prevent this. They will not be consulted, naturally, and the ‘powers’ will do it in greatest secrecy and cunning."

                              On 11 June, Gallagher – who was then-Minister of State for the Gaeltacht – forwarded the letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, calling on Gerard Collins to comment on the “dumping of chemicals by foreign countries off the coast of Donegal”.

                              The letter was subsequently acknowledged by the Minister on 19 June, but it wasn’t until 16 July that an individual from the department’s disarmament section addressed the concerns about nuclear dumping.

                              Addressing the constituent, they wrote:

                              "We are not aware of any proposals to dump chemical weapons off Donegal, or of any allegations that such dumping has taken place in the past."

                              "[Chemical weapons] are normally destroyed by burning, rather than by dumping at sea."

                              Gallagher was contacted for comment, but did not respond to TheJournal.ie by the time of publication.

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