From Outer Space to County Limerick

It was 8pm on December 26th, 2001 - and Gerry Battles was making his way home after having enjoyed two belated Christmas drinks with his friends in the nearby Seven Sisters Pub in the village of Kildimo. He was now only minutes away from his cozy house in the village of Pallaskenry when he decided to stop for a minute to look up at the stars. It was a beautiful winter's evening, crisp and dry. The scenery had been gently dusted with frost, and the stars were so clear that one could '*read a book with the light off the night sky*'. However, Gerry's serene state of mind would soon be shattered when his attention was drawn to a bright, surgical-seeming white light coming from the other end of the small country lane down which he had been ambling.

## Should I Be Afraid?

Gerry Battles, a retired carpenter (and now grandfather) in his mid 60s, would finally choose to come forward with a truly bizarre story to tell the *Limerick Post* newspaper in February of 2016 - almost a full fifteen years after the event had actually taken place. He was strolling back down a local country lane towards his house in County Limerick, Ireland, when he was suddenly confronted by an otherworldly white light shining from the other end of the path. The next thing he remembers is finding himself aboard what appeared to be a spacecraft, among roughly 40 other humans - all of whom were stood in a statue-like subdued state.

All of these people were male, and belonged to all different age ranges. They were stood shoulder-to-shoulder, '*like mannequins*'. Gerry too was paralysed like the other men - only able to move his eyes. He was stood next to a man wearing a '*Columbo-style coat and hat*'. In an odd, dream-like sequence of events, his next conscious memory informs him that he floated into a larger chamber with a 360-degree viewing deck. There was an inhuman entity - taken to be an extraterrestrial by the witness - stood in this room. Gerry '*couldn't tell how big he was or even if he had arms or legs*', but stated that the bizarre being had an oversized cone-shaped head and '*ginormous*' eyes, described as being beautifully black and reflective.

As I'm sure many of us UFO buffs would be in this situation, Gerry comes across as if he was more excited than frightened when confronted with his bona fide alien abduction. The cone-headed being spoke to him through telepathy, asking him why he wasn't '*terrified like the others*'. In turn, Gerry asked if he should be. The alien's reply to this question is unclear, but one can assume that the implication was that Gerry had nothing to fear, seeing as the being then asked the boggled witness what he would like to see. Gerry's reply was instantaneous - he would like to see '*the North Pole*'.

The entity gave a command at this point, and in an instant they had travelled to the North Pole, just as the stunned grandfather had requested. Gerry remembers thinking of a line from *Star Trek* - '*Warp speed, Mr. Sulu*'. He says that the experience was like driving through a snowstorm '*at 500 miles an hour*'. Presumably after (or during) this surreal joyride, Gerry's abductor delivered a terrifying message to him.

'*You have come a long way in such a short space of time but your time is running out. In 850 years from now, a giant asteroid the size of Munster is going to obliterate your planet. The asteroid will approach your planet from the 35th Quadrant. We are four million light years more advanced than you are. We have been observing you for Millennia. In all that time you have only excelled at two things - global warfare and lying to your own species. You must use the force. Be one with the force. Harness the force*'.

It was all going so well for the alien in terms of his credibility, and then he quoted *Star Wars*. The next part of the message he delivered was less cosmic in scale, but no less worrying. The entity said that every single one of Earth's governments had been lying to the public since the very beginning, and that we mustn't trust them. The banks are apparently also lying, and are actually furthering some nebulous agenda of their own. There is allegedly an impending global financial crisis, and '*we are going to end up like the dinosaurs*' if we don't change our ways.

As is often the case in such events, Mr. Battles had no memory of the events that had transpired, and had no idea how long they - whatever they were - had lasted. That was, of course, until a contractor working at the Regional Hospital made an odd discovery a few weeks later. The coat that Mr. Battles had been wearing the night of his alleged abduction was on the hospital roof. Battles was at a loss to explain how it had gotten there, and it was only after the coat was returned to him that he started to recall what had happened on that fateful December night.

## Dire Prophet or Sci-Fi Charlatan?

Unsurprisingly, Gerry added that everyone he has revealed his bizarre tale to has concluded that he must be mad. The reporter to whom he reported his story asked him if he had any history of mental illness, and the answer was a laugh followed by a total denial of any illness. This same reporter stated the Mr. Battles is a 'quiet-natured gentleman' and that he is totally adamant that the message imparted to him by his abductors is one that all mankind must hear. When asked what he thinks of those who scoff at his claims - he said that they are '*naïve and have small imaginations*', and that they should open their minds to what he believes to be the truth.

Gerry goes on to speculate that the aliens use '*dark matter*' or '*dark energy*' as a perfect cloaking device to keep their universe (??) hidden from our own. He hopes that his story will one day reach the scientific community and prove useful in uncovering these hidden galaxies.

Obviously one has to be skeptical when confronted with these sorts of 'Contactee' tales, and especially in this case seeing as the so-called aliens ended up quoting *Star Wars*, and it is quite clear the Gerry is something of a sci-fi fan - as can be inferred from his reference to *Star Trek*. As can be seen from all of the photographs of the man that were published in the various newspapers - both online and physical - to talk about his story, he has used his abduction experience as inspiration for some interesting artwork, and I would say that his intentions with this story don't seem to be those of making money or gaining fame. He says that he simply dismisses those who are skeptical instead of trying to convince them, and he claims that his motivation for telling this story is that it might one day reach the scientific community. I don't quite know what to make of this case.

## Source

'Close Encounters of the County Limerick Kind' by Alan Jacques for the *Limerick Post*