More bad news?

Jacues Vallee wrote 1988 about this story.

He reflexes on "Drake and Wilkins" without further details to the source.
He mentions
...the year 1211.
...a location "Cloera" that can no be identified
...a church "St.Kinarus". This saint isn't mentioned in any catholik list of saints
...a bishop without name. There was no resident bishop in Irland in this time at all.

A similar story goes about Gravesend/Kent without further details


Resume: nice story, but imho not historical

Sorry

While I do not believe in small fairy men going around in airships here are a few things.

St Kinarus is a corrupted form of either St Cidran or St Ciaran (or Kieran): they are not the same person
Cloera is probably the monastery now known as Clonmacnoise (and St Ciaran, the monastery founder, was buried there and much beloved by the local population)
Both errors probably originated with an Anglo-Saxon speaker unfamiliar with Gaelic languages and perhaps Latin
Clonmacnoise had a bishopry since at least the late IX century (though he ranked below the local Abbot) and in 1211 he would have been an obscure figure known only by his Gaelic name, Muiredach Ua Muirecen.
BUT there's a problem: the monastery's records from 1182 to 1299 were lost during the Danish invasions so there's no way to cross-check the story.

My opinion is either a high tale concocted to promote visits to the church (though St Ciaran's tomb was a powerful enough attraction) or, much more likely, an example of bad translation getting progressively wilder. I would be very curious to see the original Latin story and translate it for myself. I did it once with St Adamnan's Life of Columba and though time-consuming was quite rewarding.