SIGHTINGS OF FIREBALLS shooting through the sky were reported last night as people around the country were treated to a surprise meteor shower.

David Moore, Chairman of Astronomy Ireland, told TheJournal.ie that the meteor shower was unexpected but there have been reports from all over the country, in the UK and internationally.

Moore said he has “never seen anything like it” as the fireballs lasted some 20 seconds which is unusual for meteor showers.

“This means they weren’t falling straight down but rather almost parallel to the ground,” he said. “When a man-made space craft burns up that’s exactly what they do so it could have be a piece of space debris.”

The fireballs would have been travelling at about 17,000 miles per hour according to Moore.

Experts in the UK backed up Moore’s suggestion of space debris as Tim O’Brien of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics told BBC Radio 4 that, although it is not clear what people were seeing, it is likely that it was man-made space junk or orbital debris from satellites or rockets.

Readers have been sending us evidence of their sightings so if you didn’t have your eyes to the sky last night, here’s what you missed.