AVOCA  , or OvocA, VALE OF, a

mountain glen of county Wicklow, Ireland, in the south-eastern part of the county, formed by the junction of the small rivers Avonmore and Avon-beg, which, rising in the central highlands of the county, form with their united waters the Ovoca river, flowing south and south-east to the Irish Sea at Arklow . The vale would doubtless rank only as one among the many beautiful glens of the district, but that it has obtained a lasting celebrity through one of the Irish Melodies of the poet Thomas Moore, in which its praises are sung . It is through this song that the form " Avoca " is most familiar, although the name is locally spelt " Ovoca." The glen is narrow and densely wooded . Its beauty is somewhat marred by the presence of lead and copper mines, and by the main line of the Dublin & South Eastern railway, on which Ovoca station, midway in the vale, is 424 M. south of Dublin . Of the two " meetings of the waters " (the upper, of the Avon-more and Avonbeg, and the lower, of the Aughrim with the Ovoca) the upper, near the fine seat of Castle Howard, is that which inspired the poet . At Avondale, above the upper " meeting," by the Avonmore, Charles Stewart Parnell was born .