rapid scattered flashes in a clouidy sky with a craft emerging that seemed to be associated with themmy father and i witnessed an event in the sky over our home in athlone co. westmeath ROI. there were some light low lying clouds in the sky. there were gaps between the clouds and some stars could be seen. the area is urban, so it wasn't very dark about. my father noticed a large object in the sky which was quite bright but seemed to be stationary, although clouds occaisionally passed in front of it. he thought it was a satellite of some sort and came to get me to give my opinion. when we got back outside we could no longer see the object. we remained looking for it and after about 1 minute we seen an intense local flash of light in the clouds. it was extremely fast and one would have to have been looking at the sky to see it i feel. we continued to look on and after about another minute there was approx 12 further flashes in rapid succession scattered over a large region of the sky. these flashes did not brighten up much area of the cloud cover but were clearly visible. again all of the flashes were extremely short duration. it took about 10 seconds for all the flashes to occur. no sounds resulted. they were definately not lightning. immediately after the flashes ceased the craft my father had initially seen emerged from behind a cloud. it appeared to be associated with the flashes. it was very well lit up with many lights on the underside. it didn't have any of the familiar characteristics of an airplane of any kind i have ever seen, or my father. it also was flying too low to be an airplane. it made no sound. it was travelling relatively slow and seemed to disappear behind a cloud, although as bright as it was i dont really feel that the cloud could have completely obscured it, as the clouds were very light. we continued to look for it to re-emerge but suddenly noticed that it had reappeared in a different area of the sky travelling a different direction at a very great speed. it went behind another cloud shortly afterwards and we didn't see it re-emerge or any further flashes. this event is the most peculiar thing i have ever seen with my eyes and i cant even fathom any kind of explanation. even if the craft was a plane the lights seem to be inexplicable. i have read on the internet of geological events causing some phenomena in the sky but there are no fault lines or anything like that here in ireland that could cause those... and the flashes were so uniform in duration and size, almost as if they were caused by the same entity which was travelling great distances almost instanteously through the sky. i am left bewildered and confused by this and during the sighting felt a shiver of fear run through me as the event was so weird. like something you would see in a movie, but it was actually occurring over my head! my father and i live with my mother and sister, and i have one son who lives with us also. i am separated. i am 27 years old studying for a toxicology degree. my father is in his late fifties and is retired.