Two Irish friends, Mark and Barry, saw a cigar-shaped UFO with lights in the forest in 1997. Pic credit: Pixabay
Two Irish UFO witnesses are revisiting a sighting in the forest that remains unresolved.
The sighting in the summer of 1997 involved two friends, Mark Monaghan and Barry Brown, then in their 20s.
The pair, now in their 40s, want to commemorate the encounter by returning to the site of the event 26 years after, according to the Irish Mirror.
A cylindrical UFO over Lough Key
Mark and Barry sighted a strange airborne object during a forest camping trip in the Lough Key area of County Roscommon in the summer of 1997.
[Note: Lough Key is a lake in County Roscommon.]
According to the Irish Mirror, the pair described it as a metallic, bus-sized, cylindrical, or cigar-shaped object hovering about 500 meters high in the sky.
Mark recalled feeling a spine-chilling fear as the mysterious object traveled across the sky toward Lough Key. It stopped to hover over the lake.
Although the origin and identity of the alleged UFO remain unresolved, the pair never forgot the fear-inspiring experience.
Cigar-shaped UFO had four big lights
In an interview with the Irish Mirror, Mark recalled that he and Barry had a third companion, Michelle, who also saw the strange object in the sky.
However, he couldn’t remember which of them first saw it. But after they all acknowledged seeing it, they passed binoculars around.
He recalled that the cigar-shaped object drifted silently over the lake and then stopped for several minutes to hover about 500 meters in the air.
They noticed it had four prominent lights and several smaller ones. It also looked metallic.
The unexpected sighting frighted them. They felt that something or someone in the hovering craft was watching them.
The shocked trio went to a pub after the sighting
After the object disappeared, the three went to a nearby pub to recover from the shock and process the experience.
By a strange coincidence, the small country pub was playing songs about UFOs. One of the songs told the story of an alien UFO that crashed on a farm.
They shared their story with the media, and it became the subject of a documentary on TV in 2001.
Shortly afterward, Eamonn Ansbro, an Irish astronomer, and UFO researcher, filmed a cigar-shaped UFO flying in the Lough Kery area.
Mark and Barry plan to return to the site near Lough Key
With the renewed interest in UFO phenomena following the recent shocking disclosures by whistleblower David Grusch in the U.S., the pair want to revive public awareness about the Lough Key sighting.
They plan to return to the spot in the forest where, decades ago, they saw the UFO.
Ireland has mutliple UFO hotspots
The latest report comes after Paranormal Papers reported that the Irish UFO researcher and astronomer Eamonn Ansbro called on the Irish authorities to monitor areas in the country identified as UFO hotspots.
He named various locations in the country as UFO activity hotspots. The areas included Lough Key in County Roscommon, near Boyle, and West Cork, an important tourist destination.
He also mentioned south Kerry and Dublin as areas with significant UFO traffic.
Ansbro claimed that the Irish government was aware of UFOs intruding into the country’s air space but ignored them because they didn’t know what to do.
But he insisted that the government could not ignore the potential national security threat.
He also urged the government to encourage openness about UFO phenomena by providing hotlines where people can report sightings.