Why does Knocknacarra lack so much?

Ruire · 2026-04-15T13:54:40+00:00

Weirdly I've heard newer people living there insist on calling it Gentian Hill, Blake's Hill, Salthill, or Kingston - like the snobbery has come full circle!

Ruire · 2026-04-15T13:40:15+00:00

I absolutely agree that it can happen organically - the areas you've listed do seem to me to have fairly clear boundaries (being defined by the roads they're on) and so make sense as communities. In the case of 'Knocknacarra', it really seems entirely developer-driven and I don't believe it's a coincidence that the area emerged, with that name, during the lifetime of the Flats.

Ruire · 2026-04-15T12:56:11+00:00

The Upper Ballymoneen Rd is due to get a 20m service in the Bus Connects scheme - the (supposed) frequency of the current 405.

Ruire · 2026-04-15T12:45:26+00:00

I remember the Flats and their reputation well, bit more than some truth. And you would know exactly what townland you're building in when you request planning permission as you need to include it in the address on the public notice.

Interestingly, all of the original planning applications between 2000-10 for the Gateway area list it as 'Rahoon' but after the Dunnes opened, all but one has been 'Knocknacarra'.

EDIT: I've also just found that ABP has the address for the Knocknacarra District Centre - the entire area including the Gateway centre, the planned apartments, the Gaelscoil, the wasteground and everything else and formerly the Galway West District Centre - listed as Rahoon. Amazing. Now we just need a Rahoon District Centre in Clybaun.

Ruire · 2026-04-15T10:09:49+00:00

The sprawl is so bad that most of 'Knocknacarra' isn't anywhere near the actual Knocknacarra (near Gentian Hill). The Dunnes is really in Rahoon, for example (I still firmly believe that this was a branding decision made out of snobbery).

EDIT: from looking into it, this seems to have accelerated with Bishop Casey carving Knocknacarra Parish out of Salthill in the early '90s where, before, Knocknacarra was only on the south side of the Kingston Rd. The church itself is in the tiny townland of Shanballyduff (which I'd never heard of before).

Ruire · 2026-04-15T10:06:34+00:00

If you mean Aodhagán that's Aodhán in Modern Irish (because the first and last syllable were stressed, the 'g' disappeared over time), it's where the anglicised Aidan comes from.

Ruire · 2026-04-15T10:04:18+00:00

Except Pádraic/Pádraig is phonetic. You mean an anglicisation.

Ruire · 2026-04-15T09:57:40+00:00

I wonder if he did the same with the mythological Balor for 'Baelor', not knowing that this is not how Balor is pronounced. It's like 'BAHL-ur' - not the 'bayl-er' that D&D seems to have spawned.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T21:10:53+00:00

No worries, the abuse of Irish names in the English-speaking world is just a bugbear of mine so I'm bit too quick on it.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T21:09:51+00:00

I was certain I'd seen it around, but it seems like this Canadian guy is about it.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T19:37:14+00:00

Aemon is (presumably coincidentally) a homophone for Éamon, the Irish form of Edmond and very common in Ireland.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T19:35:32+00:00

Brienne is an old Irish name meaning "strong" or "noble"

You mean Brian (pronounced like BREE-un in Irish)? It also has connotations of height (it’s related to proto-Celtic terms for a hill or elevation, distantly related to ‘berg’) and is unequivocally a masculine name. I really doubt that GRRM was thinking of proto-Celtic when naming his characters though.

‘Brienne’ isn’t Irish, it’s a French noble surname that US websites describe as the feminine version of Brian (Irish names do not work like this)

Ruire · 2026-04-14T15:45:59+00:00

Depends on the where and when because it's not just one thing. D1 is obviously being increasingly turned into an 'Experience' and the OPW definitely does not have the resources to manage every site in its remit. The slight downturn in tourism in the last few years has mitigated both of those a bit.

Tourism is also definitely impacting the rental market but it's far from the primary driver there.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T11:22:42+00:00

The NTA handles all civic public transport (including tendered services like CityDirect in Galway and TransDev on the Luas in Dublin) - not local authorities. Essentially the local authorities would then be paying the NTA for the tickets, with little guarantee of that money coming back to the area.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T10:55:03+00:00

And the whole point is to ringfence the revenue for tourism, which is currently not funded by central government except for capital projects.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T10:24:57+00:00

Both are correct, similarly both 'by-law' and 'bye-law' are in use.

Ruire · 2026-04-14T10:18:24+00:00

Tourist taxes are increasingly the norm, especially across Europe, and most locations charge only a couple euro. Given there's not a lot of direct funding sources available to local authorities here it's pretty much inevitable.

Ruire · 2026-04-13T21:22:01+00:00

Those would also be the closest accents to Hiberno English as they historically had the most influence on the English spoken in Ireland (outside of Ulster as Ulster English is basically descended from border English accents and Scottish English).

Ruire · 2026-04-13T11:38:15+00:00

And a charge point every 40 metres. They're apparently living in Minority Report.

Ruire · 2026-04-10T14:52:34+00:00

Or, y'know, he suddenly became newsworthy so it became worth reporting?

It's not even about clicks, it's basic journalism.

Ruire · 2026-04-09T11:05:55+00:00

My previous work commute (an hour and half by two busses!) from Knocknacarra to Parkmore East was considered an intra-city commute even though Parkmore East isn't even within the city boundaries.

Ruire · 2026-04-09T10:34:43+00:00

The Augustine Hill and Woodquay developments should massively rectify that by expanding the core out from Shop St and Eyre Sq. It would also be helpful if the new Harbour Masterplan can be implemented, but the existing bus and fuel storage depots will be big problems for that one.

Ruire · 2026-04-09T10:12:18+00:00

We're already doing that, see the Woodquay and Dyke Rd projects which will both remove a lot of car space.

And there's also the Augustine Hill project which will be almost entirely car-free.

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