Campile's history was changed by an air attack on its co-operative creamery during the Second World War. The village also belongs to the transport and monastic landscape around the Campile River.
⊕Recorded locationCampile52.28955° N · 6.94138° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Ceann Poill· Irish · main form · validated name
Campile· English · main form
Place & story
Three women killed at the co-op
On 26 August 1940 a German aircraft bombed the Shelburne Co-op in Campile. Sisters Mary Ellen and Catherine Kent and their colleague Kathleen Hurley died in the restaurant. Many workers had already finished their midday meal and left the room, limiting the number killed, although others were injured. In an RTÉ report marking the fiftieth anniversary, Teddy Drought recalled being fifteen and working at the co-op when the attack occurred. The report also recorded a precaution adopted afterwards: a siren sounded whenever aircraft passed overhead. The attack left the village living with the possibility of further raids during the Emergency.[2]
The diplomatic aftermath
An Irish government statement of 8 October 1940 records the exchanges with Germany after the bombing. The German Foreign Office acknowledged the possibility that a German pilot had lost his way, expressed regret and sympathy, and offered to discuss compensation for the damage. The statement followed the presentation of Irish evidence about markings on the bombs. It is a contemporary record of how the destruction in a small Wexford village became a matter of diplomatic negotiation between neutral Ireland and Germany.[3]
The railway connection
Campile station opened under the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1906. It served the line between Rosslare and Waterford, carrying the village into a wider rail network. Passenger services on that section ended in 2010 and the station closed. Screen Wexford's survey records the surviving platform and shelter and identifies Campile as the last former station before the line crosses the Barrow towards Waterford. The railway remains an important feature of the village's twentieth-century landscape.[4]
Dunbrody beside the river
Near Campile, Dunbrody Abbey represents a much older network of connections. The Office of Public Works dates its establishment to 1182 as a daughter house of St Mary's Abbey in Dublin, under the patronage of Hervey de Montmorency. The Cistercian house stood near the Campile River. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century, the abbey was used for a period as a residence.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Campile — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Campile, Wexford — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Campile, Wexford — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Campile, Wexford — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Campile, Wexford
Published census settlement populations
448people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames