I lived in royal oaks for 2 years. It's a big enough estate. I lived on oak green road, its at the back of the estate. The estate is a cul de sac but you can walk around the back to get the bus on the swords road. It's fine during the day but pitch black at night (Dodgy!)
It's full of young families and kids playing in the street. The houses are tiny. It can be a bit of a ghost town during the day, when the kids are at school.
I left the back door open one day, while i was in the house and some guy came over the back wall and into the house and robbed a handbag off the kitchen table, containing a set of car keys. My housemate actually saw him running off. He had to come over the back wall through the back garden of house behind mine, over there wall and out through there front garden.
There are no shops in the area. There is one down beside morton stadium but it closes very early (around 8 o clock). Although there is loads of new apartments now, so there might be more shops.
All in all, I liked the area and the handbag incident happens all over dublin!