Eamonn Ansbro, a Roscommon-based astronomer, attracted international media attention as he claims  his research has unearthed evidence of extraterrestrial activity. Now the Boyle local wants to put the town on the map establishing a centre for all things UFO.

For the past 20 years Ansbro, from the town of Boyle, has been carrying out research on extraterrestrial intelligence. Ansbro gives presentations across the globe, including one to the French government.

Although his work might seem controversial and unusual he insists it is carried out "scientifically".


Ansbro's work has been published by the European Space Agency and he works as a part of a group of scientists called OSETI (Optical Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).

His recent work shows that alien space-crafts follow defined paths around the earth. In his hometown of Boyle Ansbro has set up an "all sky camera" to monitor the whole sky hemisphere around the clock. The camera which comprises of 11 cameras record anything that moves or is unusual. Ansbro, along with other scientists, has collated the data which suggests that space-crafts are circling the earth.

He explained "When you take all that data and apply it to this theory we have found that it fits with the computerized time graphs and that we can predict when future sightings will occur and we have found that it has happened in Boyle."

He refers to thema as  "Identified Flying Objects" rather than UFOs.

Making comparisons to Roswell, New Mexico, he said "the tourism potential is huge.” he said, drawing comparisons with theUFO centre in Roswell New Mexico, which attracts huge numbers of visitors every year and also another UFO centre in Japan.

He told his local paper the Roscommon Herald, "We haven’t proven our discovery to the scientific community yet and don’t have the resources but we can show that extraterrestrial space craft are on specific orbital tracks around the earth.”

*Originally published in 2011.