Avoca, County Wicklow

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Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Infobox settlement Avoca (Template:Irish place name)<ref name=logainm>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a small town near Arklow, in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is situated on the River Avoca.

The Avoca area has been associated with its copper mines for many years and the valley has been celebrated by Thomas Moore 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 based there.

Avoca has been used as a filming location for several films and television series. The BBC series Ballykissangel was filmed there.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1967, Avoca was one of the locations used in the film Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon, and it was the setting for the comedy film Zonad which had a general Irish release in 2010.

The red kite, 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 as Avoca. Ptolemy mentions the river Oboka on his early map of Ireland. The official name of the village is now Avoca in English and Template:Lang in Irish. None of the other names are used today.<ref name=logainm/>

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, may have occurred. The East Avoca site, today, is composed mainly of a number of rock waste spoil heaps, abandoned quarries (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.Template:Citation needed

River Avoca at Avoca, note copper-coloured stones on the river bed

Transport

Avoca lies on the R752 regional road linking Rathnew with Woodenbridge. Bus service to Avoca is provided by Local Link route 183 from Arklow to Sallins.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

There has been some local political pressure<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Dead link</ref> to reopen Avoca railway station, 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

International relations

Template:See also Avoca has a town twinning agreement with Bromham, Wiltshire in England.<ref name="bromhamwiltshire.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Notable people

  • Noel Andrews (1932–2011), Irish radio and television commentator ran The Avoca Inn from 1970 to 1990<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • George Barret Sr. (c. 1730–1784), Irish landscape artist painted at Avoca<ref>There is a landscape view of Avoca in the National Gallery of Ireland, Bodkin p. 76</ref>
  • Oliver Byrne (1810–1880), civil engineer and author of scientific works was born in the Vale of Avoca<ref name = MAA>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Harry Harrison (1925–2012), American science fiction author, lived in the area in the 1970s<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Lawrence Kavenagh (c. 1810–1846), Irish-Australian convict bushranger was born in either Newbridge (now called Avoca) or nearby Rathdrum<ref>Two sources from 1842 show either option as Kavenagh's "native place": (1) Register (Van Diemen's Land), Description lists of convicts convicted locally or arriving on non-convict ships (1842), page 111; Lawrence Kavanagh; age 33; "New Bridge, County Wicklow" (Ancestry.com); (2) Indents of Convicts Locally convicted or Transported from Other Colonies (Van Diemen's Land), Marian Watson indent 1842; Lawrence Kavenagh (Police No. 860); age 30; native place: "Redrum, Wicklow".</ref>
  • Pauline Mellon, Irish mathematician was born in the town<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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See also

References

Notes Template:Reflist

  • 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. Template:ISBN [2]

Template:County Wicklow Template:Authority control

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