All about Bandon + Bandon
Been to Bandon, Oregon lately? It’s about to become one half of a meaningful relationship.
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Postcards. Pen pals. Station wagons. All-male service clubs. Societal relics of a bygone era in America. Should Sister Cities be on that list?
Definitely not. Created during the Eisenhower Administration to “promote peace through people-to-people diplomacy,” Sister Cities are very much alive. Ever been to Cinco de Mayo or the Dragon Boat Races at Tom McCall Waterfront Park? Both vital civic events are put on by Sister City associations.
As first reported right here in the PDX HI, Bandon, OR and Bandon, IRE have become Sister Cities. Even though Oregon has at least five dozen such diplomatic pairings across the globe, this is the first Sister City in Ireland for any Oregon city, town or county.
Back in 2012 it was big news that Boring, Oregon and Dull, Scotland would become Sister Cities. Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame wrote about it. That relationship will be observed this year on August 9th at Jerry’s Car Barn with its 100 plus valuable cars. There will be live music and a bouncy castle unlike anything seen in Edinburgh. Not sure what they’re doing in Dull to celebrate.
Oregon’s first Sister City set up was established in 1963 with the town in Germany where John Astor was born. Walldorf and Astoria. Makes sense. Here I thought someone was being clever with the name of the famous hotel in Manhattan.
But back to Bandon and Bandon
At the start of 2020, Robert Miller, an attorney in Bandon who takes his civic duties seriously, was in the process of setting up an art show in his hometown featuring artists from Bandon, Ireland. Then Covid hit. Plans for the art show were abandoned but a Bandon bartender by the name of Sean O’Donovan caught wind of the project. Sean was once Mayor of Bandon and sat on the Cork County Council. He’s the one, says Miller, “who advanced a formal twinning proposal.” (In Ireland the Sister Cities process is called Twinning. They call it football. We call it soccer.)
His proposal passed but nothing happened after that because O’Donovan lost his bid for reelection. Fast forward to earlier this year. Marco Oswald of the new Oregon Ireland Sister State Committee started asking questions about its status. Turns out the Bandon OR city council had approved the plan more than two years ago. So, Mayor Mary Schamehorn deputized Miller to revive the idea. He’s now recruiting local volunteers to help build a robust Sister City relationship with a city that has the same name, 7,600 miles away.
George Bennett, born in Bandon, Ireland, for which he named his new home in Oregon after claiming naming rights. Contributed photo courtesy of the Bandon Historical Society
What’s in a name?
Why is “our” Bandon even called that? Because Lord George Bennett of Bandon, Ireland won naming rights. (Lord of what, I don’t know.) Did he discover Bandon, Oregon? Like so many Irish stories, it’s complicated. What is known is that he was educated at Trinity (so he wasn’t Catholic); when he travelled to Oregon from Ireland in 1873 he left behind a wife and daughter who never joined him in Bandon; he transplanted Gorse from West Cork to his new home which nearly burned Bandon down in 1936; and he wrote mediocre poetry. The Bandon Beach 1887 - “O, we love to stroll where the billows roll on a cheerful and cloudless day; and roam o’re the strands, with their jeweled sands and watch the wild waves at play.”
Bennett is buried in Bandon, Oregon.
George Bennett brought gorse from Ireland to Oregon for decorative hedges. So much of it grew out of control that it fed a catastrophic fire in Bandon during the Great Depression. Some people have never forgiven Bennett.
“Cynicism can give way to trust.”
Testifying before the Bandon City Council in support of the Sister City relationship, Miller, who now spearheads the project, quoted JFK’s words in 1961 to supporters of Sister City initiatives. “Through personal relations – people to people – curiosity can be fulfilled by a sense of knowledge, cynicism can give way to trust, and the warmth of human friendship be kindled.”
Oliver Plunkett Street in Bandon,. Ireland.