'The Passing Show', a regular political commentary in the Dublin Sunday Independent, today takes note of the airship mystery (p. 6). It begins in a somewhat lighthearted fashion:

The 'phantom airship' scare is again occupying the attention of the British public, and, as usual, giving the anti-German section of the said B.P. food for grave misgiving.

This is followed by a very brief résumé of the major sightings of the past four weeks: Dover, Cardiff, Liverpool, Aberystwyth and Manchester. Nothing new here except in the last case: the Manchester airship is said to have 'been seen by reliable witnesses' and those witnesses are said to number 'Many'. Which may not be very much but the previous reports were not very forthcoming on the subject of who did the reporting. No conclusion is offered, but there is a noticeable tilt in one direction:

This is serious enough; but far worse is the fact that the officers of the Aero Club state that the vessel cannot possibly be of British origin. There is no English airship which could cover the distance in the time suggested by its appearances, whereas, as is well known, the German Zeppelins are quite capable of doing so, or of crossing from Germany and returning without landing.

It's interesting that the Sunday Independent doesn't see fit to mention, or else doesn't know of, the airship seen at Newport, Co. Mayo, three weeks ago, which might suggest that it's not just the British public which is prone to seeing German airships. On the other hand, that incident is the only one from Ireland to have been reported so far.

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