Location: Off Springfield Road, Ballymurphy, West Belfast
Irish Name: Clós Abhóca
Date Named: 13 September 1999
Possible Name Origin: Likely refers to the River Avoca and village in County Wicklow
Avoca Close is a small residential cul-de-sac situated just off Springfield Road in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast. The name was officially approved by Belfast City Council on 13 September 1999, following a naming application submitted by Browning Developments (Belfast City Council Minutes, 1999).
The name Avoca appears to refer to the River Avoca and the nearby village in County Wicklow, though no formal explanation was recorded at the time of naming. In Irish, the place is known as Abhóca, a form that may have developed from Abhainn Mhór (“great river”) (Logainm.ie). The River Avoca flows through the well-known Vale of Avoca, a landscape long associated with literary and cultural imagery.
Some 19th-century antiquarians speculated that Avoca might be linked to Oboka, a river recorded in Ptolemy’s 2nd-century map of Ireland, though this theory is debated and not conclusive (QUB Placenames Project, Avoca). Belfast City Council’s bilingual naming register lists the Irish form of the street as Clós Abhóca (BCC Dual Language List, 2012).
Avoca Close was developed in the early 2000s, following its official naming in 1999. By the end of the decade, housing was well established.
Belfast City Council Minutes – Health and Environmental Services Committee, 13 September 1999, p. 984.
BCC Dual Language Street Names List, compiled in 2012 (includes Clós Abhóca for Avoca Close).
Logainm.ie – entry for Avoca, County Wicklow: https://www.logainm.ie/en/1412024.
Placenames NI / QUB NI Place-Name Project – entry for Avoca (includes historical discussion and Ptolemaic link).