The first part of this article was taken from the www.visitwicklow.ie site.

Avoca (Irish: Abhóca) 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 famous copper mines for many years and the valley has been immortalised by Thomas Moore in the famous song The Meeting of the Waters. The name of the song derives from the meeting of the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers, about two miles 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 hand weaving. Avoca Hand weavers are based in Avoca.

 Avoca was once known as Newbridge. It subsequently became known as Ovoca, and then in Victorian times as Avoca. Ptolemy mentions the river Obhoca on his early map of Ireland. The official name of the village is now Avoca in English and Abhóca in Irish. None of the other names are used today.

 Avoca is the village where the BBC series Ballykissangel was filmed. In 1966, Avoca was one of the locations used in the film “Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon”

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There are many from the Kenny family living in or near Avoca, today. Most, if not all had originally come from two different families which would have left Kennystown in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  These two  families would be from Denis Kenny and Mary Malone Kenny, which had 10 children, and the  other branch of Kenny's was from Richard Kenny . Richard was married to Annie Wafer in Kilcavan around 1898. After Annie's death from child birth, Richard moved to Avoca and met Bridget Byrnes, and she gave birth to 13 more children.  Denis and Richards were brothers, both sons of Richard and Mary Cahill.

 Between these two large families, the results means that there are many from our family there.

 

In 2008, I met one of these relatives from the Richard Kenny line, named Sheila Whelan. She is a second cousin to the present day Kennystown people, and would be a third cousin the the Denis Kenny line.  In 2013, I was contacted by Amy Kenny of Ashford, stating that she had viewed my website at www.kennytree.com  and stated that her family was from the Denis Kenny side, and proceeded to fill me in on this line.  Since then other's, including Kay McLoughlin came forward with helping put this genealogy information together.

In March of 2016, we will be joining these 2 Kenny families from Avoca, (many not even know how they were related),  with the present day Kennystown people, and the Kennys from USA,  all to  gather for a Kenny Family Reunion, at The Meeting's, near Avoca. 

Four separate Kennys will all have a chance to get to know each other for the first time, as cousins.