CAPACITY CROWDS filled into Campile Hall on Thursday night for the launch of the first book dedicated to the bombing of Campile.

The launch date marked exactly 70 years since Campile entered the history books for most tragic reasons after a German Heinkel He 111 warplane dropped four bombs on the village.

Three of the bombs exploded killing three innocent young employees of the Shelburne Cooperative Society.

Memories of that fateful day will never be forgotten and future generations will be enlightened as to the chaos that erupted in the quiet rural village in 1940 thanks to 'The Campile Bombing; August 26 1940'.

In launching the 218-page book on the night, historian Nicky Furlong gave an account of the publication and the history at the time by setting Campile in context with the war in Europe.

The book, which is a culmination of six months of research, was written by members of the Horeswood Historical Society, including John Flynn, Tom Grennan, Sean Crowley, Sean Caulfield, Mick Walsh and Jimmy Dunphy, with assistance from Maureen O'Hanlon and Patricia Byrne. It was edited by Eddie Sinnott.

The most important information the group wanted to obtain for the book was eyewitness accounts from some of the people who were in Campile that fateful day.

Those who are still alive were able to recall vividly what they saw and experienced on a most unforgettable day. These include Jimmy Whelan, who was an apprentice harness maker and who lived directly across the road from the Shelburne Co-Op, his brother Michael who had a very lucky escape when a piece of shrapnel struck the ground just inches from his head and Maggie O'Connor (nee Power), a native of Dunmain, but now living in Tinnakilly, Rosbercon, whose father Laurence had two of his fingers broken from flying debris.

In a bid to gather as much information as possible the group issued a series of appeals for information, mementos and photographs of the day of the bombing and the general history of the area.

As part of their research, members of the group travelled to Dublin in early June to explore the files held in the military archives in the Cathal Brugha Barracks. The material they discovered was beyond what they had imagined and in the archives they found statements from witnesses who were in the co-op when the bombs were dropped and from people who were in the vicinity of Campile.

Some of the most exciting information was from the army enquiry and their conclusion into why the co-op was bombed.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is undoubtedly statements from Simon Murphy, who was the manager of the Co-Op at the time, to the military enquiry.

He stated that a German firm installed machinery in the Co-Op in 1933 and 1938 and in 1938 he went to their factory in Germany to order more machinery and while he was there they were manufacturing aircraft parts.

' That would indicate that in 1938 Germany was preparing for the war effort. The people who installed the machinery in the co-op would have known what the co-op was capable of producing and would have known it was exporting foodstuffs to Britain,' explained author John Flynn. ' In our book we didn't draw our own conclusions. We only published the army enquiry conclusions, which were very interesting and concluded there was no way it could have been a navigational error. We didn't solve any mystery,' he added.

Alongside the launch there was a fascinating display of different artefacts from the former co-op and the bombing on display as well as historic pieces from World War 2, including shrapnel from the bomb that hit, an old map used by the LSF, some of Kathleen Hurley's national school books from Gusserane dating back to the 1920s, old newspapers, photographs, receipts from the co-op, an old gas mask and two old army stretchers.

Some 1,500 copies of 'The CampileBombing; August261940' were printed and are available in all local shops in Campile and surrounding areas as well as New Ross at a cost of €20 each.

- ELAINE FURLONG