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Sighting record / 1947

The Kerry Priests' Rocket-Like Object

c. 1947 · Killarney district, County Kerry, Ireland
25Thinly documented UAP Other 9 sources 1 videos

Summer, 1947. The world's newspapers were full of flying saucers. Then the Cork Examiner carried a report from Kerry. Two priests had each seen a "strange rocket-like object" in the sky. The same evening. Neither knew about the other's sighting. A Garda superintendent looked into it. He was satisfied it was a falling star, and he had sharp words for the pressmen in Killarney. His report went into a Defence Forces file on unidentified flying objects. It stayed there for decades. In September 2007 the file was released under Freedom of Information, and a single paragraph brought the two priests back into the light. Their names are still unknown.

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Context

The summer of 1947 belonged to the flying saucer. After Kenneth Arnold's sighting and Roswell, reports were coming in from all over the world. Ireland was not spared. That July the newspapers carried a story from Cahirciveen, County Kerry. Michael O'Sullivan pointed out an object to four witnesses. It was "a disc like a doughnut about five feet across, with a white halo and a hollow centre", visible for about 10 seconds just west of the Lakes of Killarney. The Irish Times ran it as "Flying Saucer Seen in County Kerry".

Sources (9, most influential first)

  1. Irish UFOs blast into the light after 37 years in twilight zone · The Irish Times· 2007-09-20 · Academic / paper of record · news
  2. New 'Saucer' Reports At Biscay, Killarney (Truth, Sydney, 13 July 1947, p. 42) · Patrick Gross ufology site· 1947-07-13 · Research organisation · news
  3. First flying saucer sighting reported in County Kerry in 1947 · IrishCentral· 2013-07-10 · Press, book, documentary · news
  4. Ireland's X Files: records reveal public concern about UFOs and government confusion on issue · The Irish Times· 2023-07-16 · Academic / paper of record · news
  5. Mr. M and Defence Forces · Office of the Information Commissioner · Official document · gov doc