Bandon Droichead na Bandan
|
|
---|---|
Town | |
Oliver Plunkett Street
|
|
Motto: Auxilio Dei Parva Crescunt (Latin) |
|
Location in Ireland | |
Coordinates: 51°44′46″N 8°44′06″W / 51.746°N 8.735°WCoordinates: 51°44′46″N 8°44′06″W / 51.746°N 8.735°W | |
Country | Ireland |
Province | Munster |
County | County Cork |
Elevation | 30 m (100 ft) |
Population (2011) | |
• Town | 6,640 |
• Urban | 1,917 |
• Environs | 4,723 |
Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
• Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
Irish Grid Reference | W488551 |
Website | www |
Motto: Auxilio Dei Parva Crescunt (Latin)
"With the help of God small things grow"
Bandon (/ˈbæn.dən/; Irish: Droichead na Bandan) is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It lies on the River Bandon between two hills. The name in Irish means Bridge of the Bandon, a reference to the origin of the town as a crossing-point on the river. In 2004 Bandon celebrated its quatercentenary. The town, sometimes called the Gateway to West Cork, had a population of 6,640 at the 2011 census.
In September 1588, at the start of the Plantation of Munster, Phane Beecher of London acquired, as Undertaker, the seignory of Castlemahon. It was in this seignory that the town of Bandon was formed in 1604 by Phane Beecher's son and heir Henry Beecher, together with other English settlers John Shipward, William Newce and John Archdeacon. The original settlers in Beecher's seignory came from various locations in England. Originally the town proper was inhabited solely by Protestants, as a by-law had been passed stating "That no Roman Catholic be permitted to reside in the town". A protective wall extended for about a mile around the town. Written on the gates of Bandon at this time was a warning "Entrance to Jew, Turk or Atheist; any man except a Papist". A response was scrawled under the sign noting: "The man who wrote this wrote it well, for the same thing is writ on the gates of hell."
Buildings sprang up on both sides of the river and over time a series of bridges linked both settlements. Like other towns in Cork it benefitted greatly from the patronage of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, although he was not, as he liked to claim, its "founder". In 1689 it was the scene of a clash between Jacobite and Williamite forces during the War of the Two Kings. After an uprising by Protestant inhabitants who expelled the Irish Army garrison, a larger force under Justin MacCarthy arrived and retook the town. Sir John Moore, later leader of the British Army, who was killed in the Peninsular War at Coruña in Spain in 1809, was governor of the town in 1798.