Avo'ca,

Avo'ca, or OVOCA (Celt. 'meeting of the waters'), a small river in the SE. of County Wicklow, formed by the union of the Avonmore and Avonbeg, which rise in the hills of the centre of the county. The Avoca runs through a very picturesque vale only a quarter of a mile broad, with wooded banks 300 to 500 feet high, and after a course of 9 miles reaches the sea at Arklow. A railway now extends through the vale, and connects a mining district with Wicklow and Dublin. The 'sweet vale' is celebrated in one of Moore's Irish Melodies. At Avondale, on the Avonmore, was born Mr C. S. Parnell.