Le Mystère du Bol de Pudding Volant

1967 was a big year for saucer stories in Northern Ireland. It began with Patrick Moore, who was the director of the Armagh Planetarium at the time, asking the public for help in tracking a UFO - and ended with possibly the biggest flap the country’s ever had. I’ll get to these stories — eventually, but first …

On 24 July 1967, the Belfast Telegraph reported:

“FLYING PUDDING BOWL” STIRS A VILLAGE

Unidentified flying objects in the shape of a pudding basin fell in the Co. Antrim village of Glenarm at the week-end.

Residents say there was a loud bang as pieces of hot metal landed in the back yard of a house in Altmore Street.

Mrs. Neill McAllister, of 21 Altmore Street was sitting in her home when she heard an explosion.

Her son, Laurence McAllister, said: “My mother was badly shaken by the blast. When she went out to the back she found a piece of of glowing metal lying in the yard.”

At the same time as the metal landed in Mrs. McAllister’s yard another piece fell onto the pavement at the from of the house. “When I put the two pieces of metal together,” said Mr. McAllister, “they resembled half of a pudding bowl.”

“On it were the words ‘De Paris, France,’” he said.

Police are investigating.

Two days later, the Telegraph reported:

LID IS LIFTED OFF PUDDING BOWL PUZZLE

The case of the mysterious flying pudding basin has been solved. 

No longer do the residents of Glenarm, Co. Antrim, live in fear of an invasion from outer space.

For police have discovered the origin of the red hot saucer which landed in the village last week-end.

District Inspector George Martin said to-day: “A man tried to open a buoy by using a blow lamp, and it exploded.”

Housewife, Mrs. Neill McAllister, of 21 Altmore St., was sitting in her home when she heard a band as a missile hit the roof and fell into the yard. At the same time a second object fell beside a nearby telephone kiosk.

GLOWING

When she went to see what had happened she found a piece of glowing metal lying on the ground.

The mystery deepened when it was learned that the two pieces knitted together into the shape of a large pudding basin.

Mr. Laurence McAllister said: “My mother was badly shaken by the explosion, but she is much happier now she knows what happened.’

“It was a talking-point in the village at the week-end, but everything has quietened down now they know where the object came from.”

Sources:

Belfast Telegraph, 24 & 26 July 1967