opinions about Ballyfermot

daenerysstormborn3

OP, I lived in The Ranch (the far end of Ballyfermot, some say it is Inchicore, some say it is Ballyfermot) for just over a year 4 years ago.

The day I moved into the house, there was a man shot dead about 10ft away from my front door, of course it scared the crap out of me but it didn't put me off the place and I may be wrong but I believe the man who was shot dead wasn't actually from the area, nor was the suspected killer, and was just drinking in the area.

About 6 months after I moved in I had a knock on the door from the gardai, a jeep that had been used in a tiger kidnapping had been abandoned on my road, they were just asking routine questions. The tiger kidnapping did not take place in Ballyfermot so, again, it didn't put me off the place.

I lived right beside the park (where Liffey Gaels GAA club is) and there is a bridge at the top of it that goes over the main road and brings you over to the War Memorial Park. I wouldn't advise heading down there when it's dark. On the Liffey Gaels side you have some undesirables drinking and on the other side, there tends to be loads of young fellas messing and fighting and that sort of stuff. I was never bothered by any of these people (I have a very large dog) but that's not to say that they were angels, maybe I was just lucky.

Now for the positives, my neighbours were absolutely lovely people. The street I lived on was mainly older retired people and they were all pleasant and friendly and looked out for me (accepting courier deliveries, keeping an eye on my house if I was away for the weekend). The bus route is brilliant, it's very rare that I had to wait a long time for a bus to come along. It is also fairly close to town so if you're feeling energetic you could manage the walk in 30-40 minutes (I had to walk into town when the buses weren't running when we had the bad snow a couple of years back).

I used to walk from my house to Liffey Valley very often and I never encountered any hassle when walking through the various parts of Ballyfermot. Oh, Liffey Valley is a major plus (although I know it's not technically in Ballyfermot), it's a great shopping centre.

There are certain parts of Ballyfermot that are not great but that's not the fault of Ballyfermot, that's the fault of the people living there.

To be honest I can't think of any bad experiences while I lived there. Nobody bothered me if I didn't want to be bothered.

I lived in Donnybrook for about a year too and I found the young girls dropping their pants behind the petrol station opposite the Wesley far more offensive.

mikemac1

I know The Steeples, technically Chapelizod but that's pretty much a con job by the management committee, it's Ballyfermot

That side of Ballyfermot is better then the Cherry Orchard side

However it's not without problems.

There does be young lads, around 15 or 16 hanging around the off licence and chipper on Decies Rd and they've thrown glass bottles at me. :mad:

Ballyfermot garda station send a car to shift them but they are kids, they'll never get charged with anything much and they fear nobody

Do you want to live in an area when you can't even walk up to an off license?

Plently of shops near Ballyer. The Tesco is filthy, all management should be fired for the state of the place.
But it has good stock and will do. There is a Lidl down the road and Liffey Valley is not far away.

Fantastic little butchers beside Tesco, I forget the name but it's a great place, I often call in buy stuff and have a chat.

As is the way with "disadvantaged" areas, there are more facilities in Ballyer then so called better areas, money gets pumped in. There is a leisure center with pool run by council, multiple parks with basketball courts and training centers for stuff like computer skills.

There are also local GAA, football and even a boxing club and rugby club which are all well run

Most of the people are lovely, very fond of calling you "love". After a few years in the area and despite being a culchie I've started addressing people as love also!!

Pubs? I don't go to any of them, I'd go to Chapelizod or there are some good pubs in Inchicore like the Black Lion.

Transport you have the 40 and you have the 79A which is more direct to/from town but then goes through the estates.
Blackhorse Luas stop is a solid 20 minute walk from top of Ballyer.

There is a local taxi firm called ASAP who give 20% off

The boy racer crowd has died a death in the recession, young lads just don't have the money to kit out cars and race them up Sarsfield Rd at night.

I'd feel safe enough walking along the main road at any time of night but I would not be walking around the estates.

The main councillor around is an independant, his name is Vincent Jackson, top man and can help you if you wish

There are incidents of cars being vandalized, drunks kicking wing mirrors, kids messing with bikes.
You'll get that anywhere, I lived in Drumcondra and it was much the same.

99% of locals are great and look out for each other, there just is the tracksuit brigade hanging around and you may get hassle.
Ballyfermot has a reputation, not entirely deserved but there is a bit of truth to it

Just try to be up the Inchicore end, not Cherry Orchard end

PM23

ninja900 wrote: »

Same thing with Clondalkin. When something happens in 'Clondalkin' and they say gardai in Ronanstown station are investigating, why didn't they say it happened in Ronanstown FFS? If it's got its own cop shop (and plenty to keep it busy :rolleyes:) then it merits its own mention on the news.

Thats because Ronanstown is not a real place. Its a made up name for the second Garda Station in Clondalkin, its named after St Ronans Avenue (the address for the station is Clondalkin Dublin 22). Everyone who lives in "Ronanstown"/ Neilstown whatevere you want to call it actaully live in Clondalkin. Thats why they say Clondalkin. They go by the address. Same with Cherry Orchard. Its in Ballyfermot. According to the address

emo72

i grew up in cherry orchard. lived there from 77 to 95. it was a fairly rough place. i kept my head down. but there was no guarantee you would avoid trouble. where i lived was without doubt the worse part of ballyer. the lower part was better, also the old settled places like upper ballyer, spidal cladagh etc, middle ballyer including the parade, was a lot quieter.

obviously i have a lot of friends who still live there and they say its a lot quieter now than it was 20 years ago. and then if your lucky you live on a good road. its definitely a good place to live. i remember when i was a kid people used to say to me "ballyfermot was a great place until they built your estate". what they said was true. there was a fair few headcases where i lived cant be denied. a lot of them are dead, in jail, or decimated by drug usage. there was nothing for kids in ballyfermot in the 80s. NOTHING. also a massive drug explosion reaped havoc on loads of kids. the place was abandoned by the authorities back then. thats why things got bad.

when im there now im amazed at the sports centre, and also the playground at ballyfermot drive. 30 years too late, but at least they got them. they are fantastic.

Hotblack Desiato

PM23 wrote: »

Thats because Ronanstown is not a real place. Its a made up name for the second Garda Station in Clondalkin, its named after St Ronans Avenue (the address for the station is Clondalkin Dublin 22). Everyone who lives in "Ronanstown"/ Neilstown whatevere you want to call it actaully live in Clondalkin.

Right so just how far does it go? According to some people, anywhere between Liffey Valley and Tallaght is 'Clondalkin' ffs

If a place is big enough to justify its own Garda station then it justifies it to be regarded as an area in its own right imho.

They go by the address.

We don't have a register of 'official' addresses in Ireland, or post codes. People can and do make up their own addresses and most of the time their post reaches them anyway so who's to say what the definitive name of any place is?

You see this all over the place, e.g. people in Crumlin pretending they live in Kimmage, people in Kimmage pretending they live in Terenure. Ructions when D26 was to be created, so it became D6w instead :rolleyes: and wasn't it Liam Lawlor who supposedly paid a bribe to get a particular development moved from one postal area to another?

Heroditas

ninja900 wrote: »

and wasn't it Liam Lawlor who supposedly paid a bribe to get a particular development moved from one postal area to another?

Oh there were plenty of them!
Half of Lucan falls into that category.

unkel

ninja900 wrote: »

wasn't it Liam Lawlor who supposedly paid a bribe to get a particular development moved from one postal area to another?

Liam Lawlor - the most corrupt person who ever lived in Lucan. I feel contempt and disgust every time I pass his house.

lord lucan

Heroditas wrote: »

Oh there were plenty of them!
Half of Lucan falls into that category.

Were i am falls into that category. It's really Quarryvale but ended up as Lucan!

Sunnyisland

As far as I recall there was a housing estate being built near balgaddy and with the help of local councillors the builder got the address changed from clondalkin to lucan as the entrance of the estate bordered on the two,The prices of the house went up by 15000.00,multiply that by 2/300 and its a nice sum of money.

mikemac1

pixiebean22 wrote: »

I lived right beside the park (where Liffey Gaels GAA club is) and there is a bridge at the top of it that goes over the main road and brings you over to the War Memorial Park.

:eek:

I'm only down the road from The Ranch and I never knew this bridge even existed

Very interesting to find that out

Funny how you can live somewhere for a few years and miss obvious things.

Eric The Great

Born and reared in Lower Ballyer, out now approximately 33 years, but still have a lot of friends and some relatives still living in the area. Picking up on a couple of things that people have said in earlier posts, I would like to share my opinion.

Ballyfermot was built from 1949 through to 1956 or thereabouts, starting at the Inchicore end and pushing on up to Cherryorchard hospital. As families grew up and kids moved on over the decades (as they do), the place dubbed by some townies as Little Korea began to settle down, with a lot of older people living out their lives quietly. Although never a utopia, we all knew who the bogeys were and avoided them accordingly. Peace and normality was just beginning what we hoped would be a long reign

In the 1980s Dublin Corporation in their ultimate wisdom decided to build Cherry Orchard housing estate on the last piece of viable land in the area, known to generations of kids as the "backers". Once built this area was filled with families (good and not so good), mostly from Dublin's South Inner City, where old and dilapidated flat complexes were being knocked down.

From the 1980s onwards this area has been the single biggest source of trouble and anti social behavior in the area. I don't believe that there are any official statistics to prove this assertion but people on the ground will tell you that the drug problem along the main drag on Ballyfermot Road stems almost entirely from Cherry Orchard, both dealing and using.

Ballyfermot Parade, while not being the prettiest of areas on the planet, would most definitely be a much safer, friendlier area to set up home, due entirely to the older more settled type of people living there. However it is really all dependent on the neighbours you are blessed or cursed with, this in my opinion is the same anywhere in the world.

Being born in the Lower end we were always told that the Ranch was in Inchicore. The Old Pine Tree was the local Pub and was well run during the years I frequented the place, unfortunately this doesn't appear to be the case nowadays and there have been a couple of serious assaults and at least one stabbing murder I can think of in the last couple of years, related to Ruby Finnegans as it is named today.

If I were ever to return to live in Ballyfermot / Inchicore I would have no problem living in the ranch.

Lastly....the Steeples apartments....this was indeed a scam by the management team of this development, the apartments are built on Corrigans field beside the De La Salle Monastery. Corrigans field or the "Corros" as they were known in my teenage years ran north from Ballyfermot Road to St Lawrences road in Chapelizod, the entrance gate was situated on the Chapelizod side and the apartments marketed as being in Chapelizod, with a few grand added to the price, you know, location, location, location;).

You won't find it on any map but the denizens of Lower Ballyfermot have re-named the area, wait for it "Ballylizard" :P.

Finally to answer the original question related to opinions of Ballyfermot...IMO there are a whole lot worse places you could choose to live, the people by and large are decent and friendly and they will leave you alone, if that is your preference.

Eric The Great

Liffey Valley SC is located at the Northern most end of Clondalkin, Newlands X is situated at the Southern most end, on the far side of the N7 Naas Road from Newlands X begins the Belgard Road, which is in Tallaght......so people claiming that Clondalkin stretches from Liffey Valley to Tallaght are actually correct.

Neilstown, Ronanstown, Bawnogue etc are all part of greater Clondalkin, while the first two are designated North Clondalkin, the third is designated Clondalkin proper. These three names stem from old townland names which would have been used way back before Clondalkin was incorporated as a town and major housing development began.

So......Ronanstown is part of Neilstown which is part of North Clondalkin.

Ronanstown Garda Station serves all of North Clondalkin and some parts of South Lucan......so would more accurately be termed North Clondalkin Garda Station.

Miss Lockhart

You make some good points Eric.

I have found that the people who are the most insistent about what is, and is not, part of an area are ofen those who moved in when the area was only starting to become built up. For many areas of West Dublin, this seems to be the 60s - 70s.

Those who have roots going back further in an area seem to be much more familiar with the actual extent of the different local regions and townlands, and are much less opposed to the inclusion of seemingly "new areas" in the greater area name.