SIGHTING: GALWAY, GALWAY (IRELAND)

Witness Testimony

"It was after dark and I was bringing my dog for his evening walk which, after him being in the house all day, he is always eager for and which lasts between 45 minutes and an hour.We were not far down the road when the dog stopped to sniff around, as dogs do. The sky was mostly clear apart from intermittent cloud cover towards the south so I looked up to see if I could pick out any of the constellations.I was facing west and I observed, almost overhead, an apparently spherical pale yellow/orange "light" travelling in a north to south direction.I live in a rural area with no street lighting and very little traffic. I did not hear any sound as the object passed overhead. (To clarify, I can hear commercial jets as they fly over at 30,000 ft or so.) I noted that it passed underneath the few clouds that were there but I don't know what altitude the clouds were at. The clouds were easy to see as there was a half moon.I tried walking a little further with the dog while still keeping an eye on the object. I then heard yowling and, using my torch, I spotted one of my cats over the hedge and in the field beside the road. He was wide eyed and yowling persistently.I didn't want my cat to follow the dog and I so I turned to walk home and the cat quickly followed, albeit on the other side of the hedge. At this point I glanced up into the sky and noted that I could no longer see the object.Having got the cat safely home and into the house, I set off to walk the dog again. Looking south I noticed the object stationary in the sky. As I walked I kept glancing and seeing it there.The dog was no longer eager for his walk, stopping often and having to be coaxed along. Eventually, although we were not even halfway down the road, he just stopped, refused to go any further, turned on his heels and headed back up the road towards home. The object was still in the sky at this stage but, by the time I approached my house, it had gone - or was no longer visible.When I got to my garden gate, however, I noticed an oscillating light lower down towards the horizon. This could possibly have been the same object but with the light distorted by cloud or mist but I cannot say for certain.Having got the dog into the house, I went outside again but could not see the object. I went back inside to feed my dog, who normally eats his evening bowl of food after his walk. He was not interested in his food at all and went to his basket where he stayed for the evening.I went back outside with my camera but, despite staying in the garden for approximately 15 minutes, did not see the object again. That said, I did notice a couple of small lights, about the same brightness and size as the stars moving in an easterly direction. It is possible that these were satellites although they did not remain visible until either over the horizon or obscured by cloud.I consulted flightradar24.com and this revealed that there were no commercial flights in the airspace over Galway at all during the duration of the sighting. "