Avoca

Several years ago a TV series named Ballykissangel was filmed in the town of Avoca. It featured a then unknown Colin Farrell, and used a great many of the town’s existing buildings as pubs, shops and churches. A friend of ours from St. Catherine’s was married in the church in this town as her husband was from the area.

As we drove into town Pauline found herself giving me directions, pointing out all of the stores having become familiar with it from the show. Our first stop was in Fitzgerald’s, the local bar where we had lunch and of course a Guinness. Here we met Denny the Tock.

While touring the Jameson factory I learned that it was common to name one’s firstborn son after the father. It was also common for each family member to follow in the footsteps of their father, which meant that there could easily be three generations of men with the same name working in the factories. In order to tell each other apart each worker was given a nickname on the first day of their employment. Whether they liked it or not, the name would be theirs for the rest of their employment.

Such was the condition of Denny the Tock, whose nickname’s origin remains a mystery, but it could easily come from either the fact that he is extremely chatty and likes to “talk” or because he’s a little bit crazy and could go cuckoo at any second. Nevertheless we had a great time chatting with him, and discovered that he knew our friends in Martinez very well, which I suppose should not be a surprise in such a very small town.