Bombing Incidents – in Ireland during the Emergency 1939 - 1945. –

A link to an BBC Northern Ireland's Website.

Monday, August 26, 1940 - Co. Wexford (Campile)

Two of the eariest incidents occurred on Tuesday, August 26th 1940, in County Wexford. In one of these, bombs fell near the Railway viaduct bridge at Ambrosetown and the home of Mr. Jim Hawkins, in Duncormick, about 5 miles from Campile Creamery. Some damage was caused to the roof of the house but no one was injured1. Shortly after, a device was dropped on the creamery at Campile. Tragically, 3 young women lost their lives. The dead girls were Mary Ellen Kent (35), who was in charge of the restaurant attached to the premises, and her sister, Catherine Kent (25), an assistant in the drapery portion of the premises, both of Terreragh; and Kathleen Hurley (25), an assistant in the restaurant, from Garryduff. In the immediate aftermath the Irish government withheld identifying the nationality of the aircraft until such information could be confirmed. Subseqently German radio annonced that one of their aricraft was responsibe. A check on Irish Newspapers from that week and after show that the story was widely covered and refered to German aircraft having dropped the weapon. As at this time, Germany was in the ascendancy, the Irish government was immediate but low key in their protests, so as not to antagonize the then seemingly unstoppable Germans. (2) That same night, London suffered 6 hours of bombing by Luftwaffe forces. (3) In March of 1943, the German, government paid out £9000 in reparation. Strangely, as late as July 2006, an article in a national newspaper called for a Government tribunal into the bombing to determine the reason for the event.4



1E-mail correspondence with Mr. Michael Martin, Tullycanna, Wexford - 2002

2O'Drisceoil, Donal "Censorship in Ireland 1939 - 1945" (Cork University Press -1996) Pg. 106

3Images of War (Periodical) Orbis Publishing 1996-1998 War Diary Part 1 - Pg. 6

4Noel Whelan, 'A modest proposal to solve Campile mystery', July 22 2006, Irish Times

Patrick J Cummins, "Emergency" Air Accidents - South-East Ireland 1940 - 1945, 2003

Irish National Archives, Dept. of the Taioseach online file index search.

December 20th, 1940

The next events occurred on Friday, December 20, 1940. The first began after 7 PM when residents of Dun Laoghaire, in south Dublin, claimed to have seen flares in the sky followed promptly by bombs falling and exploding. More fell moments later near Sandycove Railway station. Three people were injured during this. Not much later, two bombs fell on Shantouagh town-land, near to Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan. December 20th and 21st had seen Liverpool targeted by the Luftwaffe and it may have been aircraft from these raids, which would have flown up over the Irish Sea, that became lost and then dropped their bomb-loads over Ireland.(3) Throughout the 1940 - 1941 period, it appears that Irish Army Authorities frequently plotted aircraft flying deep within Irish airspace. Protests over these flights were made to the Belligerent countries by Irish officials.

January 1st - 3rd, 1941

The next series of incidents occurred over the first three nights of New Year 1941. (5) On the 1st of January, 8 bombs fell on Duleek and Julianstown, Co. Meath. There were no injuries from either of these incidents.



That morning, after 6am, 2nd January, 2 bombs destroyed several houses in Terenure, in south Dublin. Again, there were no fatalities but 7 people were injured. Three more bombs falling on Ballymurrin, County Wexford caused no damage or injuries. Again that same night, 2 bombs fell on waste ground in Fortfield Road, Dublin caused no more injuries but some damage to property. High Explosive (HE) and incendiary bombs fell on the Curragh Racecourse outside of Dublin and more weapons fell in County Wicklow. This night ended sadly however with the death of 3 family members in a house in Knockroe, near Borris in County Carlow. Sisters, Mary Ellen (40) and Bridgid (38) Shannon, along with their niece Kathleen Shannon (16) lost their lives when one of a stick of eight bombs destroyed part of the house in Knockroe.



The incidents continued in the early hours of 3 January, when 20 people were injured and two houses destroyed in the in the Donore Terrace area on the South Circular Road.

This archive content report from Dublin City Archives has a small naritive which explains the incident somewhat and lists their holdings on the issue.

It was following this series of events that suspicion arose in some circles that the bombings might have been deliberate action by one or more of the belligerents in an attempt to draw Ireland into the war. They occurred after a curious incident prior to the New Year when the German Legation requested that extra staff be allowed to join them by flying into Rinneanna. The Irish government refused and the question was put to rest. Others believed that they were captured German weapons dropped from British aircraft again in an attempt to force Ireland into the war. This idea was fueled in recent weeks by German Propaganda radio broadcasts, which suggested that the British might try something such as this.

May 5th, 1941 - Malin, Donegal

John P Duggan is his book neutral Ireland and the Third Reich makes mention of weapons dropped in 'Malin' in Donegal. There is an archvies reference but I'm unable to determine what their refers to. During a visit to the Inishowen in April 2007 a local man who served in the LDF at the time did point out in passing a location near Glengad head where bombs had been dropped in a field. An event that I must do a bit of searching on.

May 31st, 1941 - Dublin