A newly elected councillor has spoken of how her family were too afraid to leave her home on Halloween night because of people throwing stones and fireworks in Ballybane.

Sinn Féin Cllr Aisling Burke also revealed she has been asked to leave taxis before reaching Ballybane Church as drivers refuse to travel to her home.

The admission came during a discussion about a ‘community needs analysis’ being carried out for the Ballybane area by SCCUL Enterprises.

Project researcher Nollaig McGuinness told the Galway City East area meeting that residents had been invited to fill out a one-page community survey detailing what life was like in Ballybane, what they thought were the main problems that needed to be addressed and what could be done to sort out these. They were also asked to indicate what were the positives about living in the suburb on the east side.

Cllr Declan McDonnell (Ind) said he had written to the Minister for Children asking where the extra resources were that the community had been promised for housing migrants in Ballybane, and he had not even received a reply.

Mr McGuinness said the issue of migrants had not emerged so far during the consultations at two public meetings last week – the state of footpaths was top of the list, followed by concerns about antisocial behaviour, dumping, litter and public transport.

Cllr Alan Cheevers (FF) said since being elected in 2019 he was convinced the biggest problem was to get all different groups in Ballybane to work together.

“We have to take away the personalities, take away whatever issues they have between them and work together on behalf of the community,” he stressed.

Chair of the Galway East area, Cllr Shane Forde (FG), agreed there were disparate groups who had lots of different agendas. The “elephant in the room” when it came to Ballybane was the out-of-control, antisocial behaviour. People were afraid to go outside their doors after 6pm and taxis were refusing to travel there at night.

“We have to have to have those conversations openly. We have to start bringing kids to homework clubs, afterschool clubs. There’s a certain cohort who, if you did everything for them, they wouldn’t be happy.”

Pictured: Sinn Féin Councillor Aisling Burke whose family were afraid to leave her home on Halloween night.