Campile 4.11

Campile is a small village situated in the south of County Wexford, Ireland. It is nine miles outside the town of New Ross. Nearby exists the ruins of an old Cistercian abbey of Dunbrody.HistoryThe first mention of Campile, then known as Ceann Phoill, was in the Annals of Inisfallen dating from 937 AD. The annals record a group of Jewish migrants who arrived in Campile after sailing up the Pill river in their hand made ox-hide coracles. The Jewish settlers set up a small but prosperous community in Ballykeeroge about 2 kilometers from the village of Campile. Although some of the old Jewish names still exist in the village and surrounding hinterland, the early settlement was knocked down in the mid 20th Century to make way for a landfill site which still exists to this very day.During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, a Rebel camp was located on nearby Slieve Coillte hill.Ireland remained officially neutral during World War II. However, on 26 August 1940, the German Luftwaffe bombed Campile in broad daylight. Three women were killed - Mary Ellen Kent (30), her sister Catherine Kent (26), both from Terrerath, and Kathleen Hurley (27) from Garryduff. Four German bombs were dropped on the creamery and restaurant sections of Shelburne Co-op on that day. The railway was also targeted by the bombers. The attack has never been fully explained, although there are numerous theories as to why the bombing occurred.On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the bombing, a plaque was erected on the co-op walls in memory of the three women.