Carlow and World War Two
January 2nd - 3rd, 1941
From day one of the war Carlow connection although small
was there, through the men & women who would join the
British and Commonwealth forces and fight directly with
Germany and Japan.
However on the night 2nd of January 1941 World War Two
arrived in Co Carlow with dramatic and fatal consequences on
the innocents of a neutral land. This night ended sadly with
the death of 3 members of the Shannon family. Their house
was in Knockroe, near Borris, when a German bomber flying
above let loose one Stick of eight bombs which hit the house
destroying the most of it. The family had no chance of
escaping, no air raid warnings were made as with cities. The
names of those who died were the two Sisters, Mary Ellen
(40) and Bridgid (38) Shannon, along with their niece
Kathleen Shannon (16)
The excuse offered by Hitler’s government for the January
bombings, as for the other bombing, was that German aircraft
had mistaken the Irish east coast for the west coast of
Britain. The view most commonly held in Ireland was that the
German bombings resulted from aircraft off-loading supplies
to ensure a safe return to base
Source:
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/bombings.html