Ballybrack/Shankill

Ive lived in both places and i can tell you that the Bray side of Shankill is quite nice. The Ballybrack side is not.

Both Ballybrack and the North side of Shankill are dangerous. I would not have my kids grow up anywhere near there.

The best way to get an idea yourself is to walk around the area at about 10 - 11pm on a mild night. See if you feel safe and what you see. Probably no point in the winter. All the trouble happens in the summer when its warm enough for the scum to stay outside in groups.

My cousin is a gard and he hates Ballybrack. The Gardai are offered free housing in Ballybrack and Ratsallagh (to have them around the place) and only 2 of them took it up.
 
I agree with you Minion. Ballybrack is awful. Rathsallagh is bad. Shanganagh Cliffs is dreadful too. Cromlech is awful as well. The old Dun Laoghaire road is to be avoided at all costs really. If you are buying in Loughlinstown, you will be too close to Ballybrack for comfort as well. More or less north of St Anne's Church in Shankill is dodgy and to be avoided if you ask me.
 
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Have a look at New Vale Cottages in Shankill - old cottages behind the shops - really lovely place with interesting houses. It is very quite and very civil. Also south of the dart station has some nice housing estates - various prices. Handy for almost everything - transport- dart, buses M50 and shortly at Cherrywood - The Luas. There is also a huge great park for walking with a playground for the children. We have lived here for 15 years and have never had any problems.
 
Sonna said:
Have a look at New Vale Cottages in Shankill - old cottages behind the shops - really lovely place with interesting houses. It is very quite and very civil. Also south of the dart station has some nice housing estates - various prices. Handy for almost everything - transport- dart, buses M50 and shortly at Cherrywood - The Luas. There is also a huge great park for walking with a playground for the children. We have lived here for 15 years and have never had any problems.
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A lot of those cottages are tiny. They were used to house labourers who had to work to pay their rent in a former factory on the site of Loughlinstown Hospital. I reckon they are still very pricey for very small houses !
 
Shankill gets a bad press because there is a county council estate in it. Attitudes are mainly based on snobbery, rumours, and urban legends - and possibly rivalry.
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My attitude to it would be based on the fact that the Dart station is one of the most run-down and regularly vandalised on the line. Oh wait, I must be one of the dem dere Snooty McSnobs. It's probably rivals from Foxrock doing it.
 
foghorn said:
My attitude to it would be based on the fact that the Dart station is one of the most run-down and regularly vandalised on the line. Oh wait, I must be one of the dem dere Snooty McSnobs. It's probably rivals from Foxrock doing it.
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Shanganagh Cliffs is one of the main problems down near the Dart. I witnessed young boys no older than 9 or 10 jumping from roof to roof of cars parked down on the road near the Dart station a few months ago. I think this is the place that drags the name of the whole of Rathsallagh down. Rathsallagh was a rough spot thirty years ago but I think the trouble has largely died down there. However Shanganagh Cliffs more than makes up for it. I would be loathe to pay top dollar for places like Bayview with Shanganagh Cliffs and Cromlech beside me. I reject this talk of urban legends. The trouble in both these areas is very real and it impacts on people living in Bayview and on the Commons Road in Loughlinstown as well !
 
Most - if not all the cottages in New Vale have been extended - they all had very large gardens so the workers could be self sufficent with vegetable and fruit gardens and a pigsty - many still have large gardens.....Some of the houses are now up to 3,000 sq. feet - and are very stylish.
The cottages do not do not come up for sale very often. There are a lot of families there whose parents and grandparents moved into the cottages when built in the 1930s.
It still retains a lot of charm and the Carnagie library is real asset. So yes low paid labourers did live here - but there is now a huge cross-section of people and it is a really nice place to live. So that may be why the houses are a bit more expensive than the standard box available elsewhere!
 
foghorn said:
My attitude to it would be based on the fact that the Dart station is one of the most run-down and regularly vandalised on the line. Oh wait, I must be one of the dem dere Snooty McSnobs. It's probably rivals from Foxrock doing it.
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ever seen kilbarrack, donaghmede, bayside and harmonstown stations??

seriously though i think shankill and ballybrack have a name locally but are not particularly rough imo.....its a relativity thing....killiney etc are nice well to do areas...shankill (rathsallagh anyway) and ballybrack are working class......not dangerous, etc just working people getting on with their lives....
 
amolrpatil said:
Hi 'Sideview'

Basically I got very confused as I have received mixed reations about these 2 areas. I do not want to offend anybody living there but what I had heard was that there are drug dealers in the area especially the one near Tesco in Ballybrack.

My advice .....if in doubt.....don't!! I would recommend a smaller house in a 'better' area i.e. one with less anti-social behaviour.
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Nothing like a walk down to the train station at about 10 pm at night to open a persons eyes to that area.

And my best bit of advice. Do not walk through Ballybrack alone after midnight whatever you do.
 
minion said:
Nothing like a walk down to the train station at about 10 pm at night to open a persons eyes to that area.

And my best bit of advice. Do not walk through Ballybrack alone after midnight whatever you do.
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I agree. My advice would be to steer well clear of both areas. A good rule of thumb would be to only look at areas that are south of St Anne's Church in Shankill. There is social housing being built at the moment up beside St Anne's School. There is going to be an impact here to people living near the Library and New Vale. There is a need to tread carefully when shelling out big bucks for a house !
 
foghorn said:
Yes; hence, my use of the phrase "one of the most".

P.
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point is that compared to surrounding areas of killiney dalkey etc yeah they're a bit rough but compared to other normal parts of dublin they're nothing to be concerned about
 
gotta love the snobbery of the good people of dun laoghaire rathdown.......ooooh social housing, bound to be all armed robbers
 
I have lived in Shankill for 15 years - but come from a very nice part of North Dublin - on the coast. We have never had any trouble here -

Not sure that the new social housing will be an issue. Apparently there are a lot more people looking for social housing as opposed to affordable - probably because of uncertainty about work. A couple of 'bad' families can give developments a bad name - but the council have got very tough on these people. It really is unfair to mark out entire communities as bad due to the actions of the few.

I don't see many houses coming up for sale in Seaview or Bayview or any other estate around Ballybrack - so it can't be that bad. Apart from anything else it is actually a nice area in terms of proxmity to the sea, mountains and city - with good transport links.

There is no doubt young people in most areas have little to do - especially in our terrible climate. The authorities have provided no facailites either. In every smalll town and village in Spain, France and Austria - you can find swimming pools - with water slides - ice-rinks, bowling allies - all sorts of areas where kids can meet up and hang out or develop skills - they even have decent schools - but in Ireland we have to pay for private toll bridges and other wasteful projects and no investment is made into the future of our kids. It's the gurriers in the Dail that I am more worried about and the damage they do - than my neighbours.
 
Sonna said:
I have lived in Shankill for 15 years - but come from a very nice part of North Dublin - on the coast. We have never had any trouble here -

Not sure that the new social housing will be an issue. Apparently there are a lot more people looking for social housing as opposed to affordable - probably because of uncertainty about work. A couple of 'bad' families can give developments a bad name - but the council have got very tough on these people. It really is unfair to mark out entire communities as bad due to the actions of the few.

I don't see many houses coming up for sale in Seaview or Bayview or any other estate around Ballybrack - so it can't be that bad. Apart from anything else it is actually a nice area in terms of proxmity to the sea, mountains and city - with good transport links.

There is no doubt young people in most areas have little to do - especially in our terrible climate. The authorities have provided no facailites either. In every smalll town and village in Spain, France and Austria - you can find swimming pools - with water slides - ice-rinks, bowling allies - all sorts of areas where kids can meet up and hang out or develop skills - they even have decent schools - but in Ireland we have to pay for private toll bridges and other wasteful projects and no investment is made into the future of our kids. It's the gurriers in the Dail that I am more worried about and the damage they do - than my neighbours.
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good advice!
 
I lived in Cherrywood Loughlinstown for 4 years and found it to be safe. Walked around to Tesco and no problems. Ballybrack has a bad name just like other areas. My husband is from Shankill - go by Quinns Road that part avoid Rathsallagh.
 
tomed said:
The snobbery here is shocking. It's no wonder there are ghettos at all and with snobs like you there's no hope that these places will every be eradicated.

If you've never lived in the area, you can't comment it's as simple as that.
Talk of druggies or gangs on corners is such a silly comment. I live in a private estate and have teenagers hanging on corners, I've also seen the same so called "posh" kids smoking dope, drinking and getting in fights.

Luckily for those kids, they get bailed out or have parents who are keeping a close eye on them.

I grew up in Ballybrack and can give you a great synopsis of the area (including shankill). The simple fact is though that these areas are council areas, they weren't built to house middle class or upper class families. With the increase in house prices over the last decade, it's become more common for young middle class families to buy here because they can't afford anywhere else.

As with every area, there are places you should avoid when alone at night...
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I grew up there too. So thanks for allowing me to comment.
Again, all people have to do is walk around there at night. Think about if you would like your, wife, kids to walk in that same area on their own. Bet they wont want to live there then :)
 
I am from Shankill and went to school in Laurences College Loughlinstown, so I know what Ballybrack is like. I would never live in it, or anywhere near it - unless you like anti social behaviour and graffiti
 
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