Avoca, Ireland
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Avoca () is a small town near
Arklow Arklow (; ; , ) is a town in County Wicklow on the southeast coast of Ireland. The town is overlooked by Ballymoyle Hill. It was founded by the Vikings in the ninth century. Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 re ...
, in
County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. It is situated on the
River Avoca The Avoca ( ga, Abhainn Abhóca) is a river in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is contained completely within the county. Its length is 35 miles (56.3 km). The Avoca starts life as two rivers, the Avonmore () and the Avonbeg (). These jo ...
. The Avoca area has been associated with its
copper mine Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...
s for many years and the valley has been celebrated by
Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...
in the song " The Meeting of the Waters". The name of the song derives from the meeting of the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers, about 3 kilometres from the village of Avoca. The song is said to have been written under a tree, the stump of which remains by the Meetings. Avoca is also famous for its handweaving, with
Avoca Handweavers Avoca Handweavers, now mostly known simply as 'Avoca'', is a clothing manufacturing, retail and food business in Ireland. The company began in Avoca, County Wicklow and is the oldest working woollen mill in Ireland and one of the world's olde ...
based there. Avoca has been used as a filming location for several films and television series. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
series ''
Ballykissangel ''Ballykissangel'' is a BBC television drama created by Kieran Prendiville and set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural comm ...
'' was filmed there. In 1967, Avoca was one of the locations used in the film ''
Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon ''Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon'' is a 1967 Eastman color British science fiction comedy film directed by Don Sharp and starring Burl Ives, Troy Donahue, Gert Fröbe and Terry-Thomas. It was released in the US as ''Those Fantastic Flying Foo ...
'', and it was the setting for the comedy film ''
Zonad ''Zonad'' is a film by John Carney and Kieran Carney that premiered in July 2009 at the ''Galway Film'' Fleadh. The film went to general release in Ireland March 19, 2010. Premise An escaped convict fools a whole Irish village into thinking ...
'' which had a general Irish release in 2010. The
red kite The red kite (''Milvus milvus'') is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers. The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region o ...
, recently reintroduced to Ireland, is now commonly seen in and around Avoca.


Toponymy

Avoca was once known as Newbridge. It subsequently became known as Ovoca, and then in
Victorian times In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardi ...
as Avoca.
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
mentions the river Oboka on his early map of
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. The official name of the village is now Avoca in English and in
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
. None of the other names is used today.


Mining

Copper mining is reported to have begun in the Avoca River valley around 1720 and it continued, with interruptions, until 1982. Earlier mining, perhaps dating back to the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
, may have occurred. The East Avoca site, today, is composed mainly of a number of rock waste spoil heaps, abandoned
quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...
(Cronebane and East Avoca open pits) and disused roads. The largest spoil heap, Mount Platt, was built up from waste rock excavated from Cronebane open pit. There was a mineral tramway built from the West Avoca mines, through the village (on the opposite side of the river) and on to Arklow Harbour. The route of most of this was subsumed into the Dublin-Rosslare railway line, but an arch and a tunnel under the road from Rathdrum to Avoca remains.


Transport

Avoca lies on the R752 regional road linking
Rathnew Rathnew () is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland. Located south of the capital Dublin along the M11 between Dublin and Wexford, it is close to the county town of Wicklow, which is situated to the east. Education Rathnew is home to Gaelscoil ...
with
Woodenbridge Woodenbridge () is a small village in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies between Arklow and Avoca, at the meeting of the '' Avoca'', '' Aughrim'' and ''Goldmine'' rivers. The village is located at the junction of the R747 and R752 roads. The ...
. The village is served by
Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidia ...
route 133 from
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
(66 km) and
Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...
(21 km) to
Arklow Arklow (; ; , ) is a town in County Wicklow on the southeast coast of Ireland. The town is overlooked by Ballymoyle Hill. It was founded by the Vikings in the ninth century. Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 re ...
(10 km), with two departures in each direction on Mondays to Saturdays and one each way on Sundays. There has been some local political pressure to reopen
Avoca railway station Avoca railway station is a railway station on the Avoca line in the town of Avoca, Victoria. It was first opened on Saturday, 21 October 1876 however was closed for gauge conversion on Friday, 14 April 1995. Again the railw ...
, from which passenger services were withdrawn on 3 March 1964, almost 101 years after its opening, on the Dublin-Rosslare railway line, on 18 July 1863.


International relations

Avoca has a
town twinning A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...
agreement with
Bromham, Wiltshire Bromham is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England.OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). The village is northwest of Devizes and the same distance east of Me ...
in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.


Notable people

*
Noel Andrews Noel Andrews (7 January 1932 – 8 January 2011) was an Irish radio and television commentator and disc jockey for RTÉ. His career spanned over four decades, in which he was best known as the regular RTÉ presenter for 14 editions of the ...
(1932–2011), Irish radio and television commentator ran The Avoca Inn from 1970-1990 * George Barret Sr. (c. 1730–1784), Irish landscape artist painted at Avoca * Niall Byrne, guitarist in Irish band The Redneck Manifesto * Oliver Byrne (1810–1880),
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
and author of scientific works was born in the Vale of Avoca * Harry Harrison (1925–2012), American
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
author lived in the area in the 1970s *
Lawrence Kavenagh Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...
(c. 1810–1846), Irish-Australian
convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...
bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...
was born in either Newbridge (now called Avoca) or nearby Rathdrum *
Pauline Mellon Pauline E. Mellon is an Irish mathematician who works as a professor of mathematics at University College Dublin. Her research specialties include functional analysis, the theory of Banach spaces, and the symmetries of manifolds. From 2019 to 2 ...
, Irish mathematician was born in the town * Abraham Mills (c. 1750–1828), English mining company manager and
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
, one of the earliest advocates of investment in
Irish gold Irish gold is gold that occurs naturally in areas of Ireland and highly prized because of its origin and scarcity. Ireland was the major area of gold working in the Bronze Age British Isles. Irish gold is especially well known from the Irish Br ...
mining, spent time mining for copper in Avoca * John O'Hagan (1873–1930), Irish priest who served as Rector of the
Pontifical Irish College The Pontifical Irish College is a Roman Catholic seminary for the training and education of priests, in Rome. The College is located at #1, Via dei Santi Quattro, and serves as a residence for clerical students from all over the world. Designated ...
in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
from 1919 to 1930 was born in Ballykillageer near the town *
Chris Pontius Chris Pontius (born July 16, 1974) is an American stunt performer and television personality. He is best known as a cast member of the reality comedy show '' Jackass'' and co-host of its spinoff ''Wildboyz'' with fellow cast member Steve-O. ...
(b. 1974), American
stunt performer A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...
and cast member of reality stunt show Jackass lived in the town from 2004–2008 * Donald Pratt (b. 1935), Irish businessman and former first-class cricketer purchased
Avoca Handweavers Avoca Handweavers, now mostly known simply as 'Avoca'', is a clothing manufacturing, retail and food business in Ireland. The company began in Avoca, County Wicklow and is the oldest working woollen mill in Ireland and one of the world's olde ...
in 1974 *
Günther Schütz Günther Schütz (17 April 1912 – 1991) was a German citizen who worked for German Intelligence ( Abwehr) during World War II, he was deployed to Ireland, however, due to being parachuted into the wrong location he was apprehended by Irish pol ...
(1912–1991), German citizen who worked for German Intelligence (
Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...
) during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
retired in Avoca * Emily Wynne (1872–1958), Irish author and textile artist worked at Avoca Woollen Mills


See also

* List of towns and villages in Ireland *
Avoca, Victoria Avoca is a town in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north west of Ballarat. It is one of two main towns in the Pyrenees Shire, the other being Beaufort to the south. Geography The town stands in the gently undulating basin of the ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
which was named after the Avoca in Wicklow * The Avoca School,
Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a Enterprise risk management, risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackR ...
,
County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...


References

Notes *Timothy Alborn, ''An Irish El Dorado: Recovering Gold in County Wicklow'', Journal of British Studies, Vol. 50, No. 2 (April 2011), pp. 359–380. Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The North American Conference on British Studies. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/658187
PDF.
*Bodkin T. (1920) ''Four Irish Landscape Painters: George Barret R.A.'', Irish Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1987.


External links


Avoca Cemetery HeadstonesMining, Metal Resources and Exploration in the Republic of Ireland
in German, English summary {{Authority control Towns and villages in County Wicklow