The truth about UFOs is out there - but it has emerged that no one knows who to report it to in Ireland after senior civil servants struggled with how to deal with a Co Kildare sighting.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request on UFOs or UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) has underscored just how ill prepared Ireland is for monitoring unidentified craft or strange sightings in the sky. FOI documents reveal baffled civil servants were unable to assign a sighting made in Kilcock, Co Kildare, as they couldn’t figure out whose remit alien activity is.
For the first time it has been revealed a resident from Kilcock was so concerned about unexplainable nightly lights in the sky, they contacted a senior official in the Department of Transport in September 2019. However, officials were unable to deal with the issue, or even ascertain who would answer the query, according to the documents.
An official working in the Aviation, Safety and Security Division at the Department, wrote to his colleague at the time, detailing the sighting. “I received a call from a … in Kilcock reporting mysterious lights to the south of his house from 4am to 4.30am for the past week. I’m not sure what the follow up is here, but I figured this was in the domain of space. His contact number is…” he wrote.
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The official received an email back from his colleague at the Air Navigation Services Division at the Department of Transport, with the response: “Ah here, you can’t push that one to us! You know exactly how much involvement we have in space.”
The civil servant requesting assistance on the Kilcock sighting, responded: “It’s still more than we do! Also, you have air nav,” referencing access to air navigation systems in Ireland.
The Air Navigation Services Division representative wrote back: “As a Leixlip resident, I thought you’d be more cognisant of the security aspect of this.” It’s not known what the official meant by this but one thing was very transparent - it was unclear who could, or would, deal with the sighting.
According to emails contained in an FOI, a captain from the Defence Forces stated on May 30 2022, there had been no UAP sightings in Irish skies in the last decade. However, the Irish Aviation Authority was investigating reports of UFOs off the coast of Kerry in November 2018.
Last May, the IAA said its investigation into the sightings was “inconclusive.” The incident made headlines globally after three commercial pilots reported seeing bright lights and unidentified aircraft moving at great speed to air traffic controllers at Shannon Airport.
The Defence Forces captain also added that Ireland also had no engagement with the U.S or other governments on sightings in the emails contained in the new FOI.
“The Defence Forces do not actively engage with other governments in relation to unidentified aerial phenomena and would suggest outside of the Defence organisation that the Department of Transport be consulted.”
Separately, on June 3 2021, a member of the public wrote to the Department of The Taoiseach, asking who was dealing with UFO sightings within the Government.
According to an FOI, the person referred to America’s recent moves for a more open stance on UFOs or UAPs, asking why wasn’t Ireland dealing with the issue: “There have been reported incidents practically everyday for a number of years and the personnel involved, far from being mocked or laughed at are now openly encouraged to report such sightings,” the person wrote.
“What’s the Irish Government’s position on this? I’m aware there have been unexplainable sightings in Ireland also. If we have UAPs entering our airspace on a regular basis, does this not have national security implications?
"Has the Irish Government considered its own disclosure to the people of Ireland. To date many countries… have commented on their own encounters with UAPs. Surely Ireland is not one of the very few countries that has had no official UAP… Surely this deserves more publicity…”
The email was forwarded to the Department of Defence, who stated: “As far as I’m aware monitoring of Irish airspace falls under the remit of the Irish Aviation Authority…”
The Aviation Services Division at the Department of Transport wrote to the other civil servants in the Department. One responded they felt as the “concerns are security related” it may have been the Department of Defence “that would be best placed to respond.” They added: “It’s not really an air traffic control issue.”
Again, this FOI did not show a conclusion to the member of the public's concern on UFOs and how this is being monitored or not monitored - and civil servants again did not know how to deal with the matter. Earlier this month, former intelligence official David Charles Grusch, who led the analysis of UAP within a U.S Department of Defence agency, alleged the U.S had found crafts of non-human origin.
Grusch told U.S media he had handed classified information about the vehicles to Congress but had alleged he had undergone retaliation from government officials. He left his government job in April after a successful 14-year career in U.S intelligence.
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