Local Councillor highlights fears across the city in aftermath of Tullamore murder

By David Cendon Garcia

A local councillor’s call-out to women to highlight areas in the city where they felt threatened or unsafe has seen him swamped with responses.

And Cllr Owen Hanley said he could already see numerous black spots across the city that he said ‘dramatically tie together as being of similar concern’.

The Social Democrats Councillor reached out through social media following the recent murder of Ashling Murphy – encouraging women in the city to share parts of their daily walks that they felt were unsafe.

The purpose was to bring to the attention of the Galway City Council areas that could be repaired or improved to better ensure the safety of all.

But the responses identified areas right across the city.

One woman highlighted that the footpath on Upper Salthill between Blackrock and the caravan park as an area of concern for her – referencing a ‘dodgy experience’ she had.

“It was the summer of 2020. I was at the Salthill Summer Garden’s Festival beside the Caravan Park. I left before it finished. It was probably about a quarter past ten, and I was walking up along Upper Salthill Road, but it was kind of dark there, so I was trying to flag a taxi,” she said.

“I put my hands out when cars were coming by, and a guy stopped and offered me a lift. I told him I didn’t want to take a lift with him. He got really aggressive with me and told me to ‘get the f**k in the car’,” she added.

She went on to say that it was only the timely arrival of a real taxi that spooked the man before he could get out of his car, driving off.

“I phoned the Garda station, and they told me that I shouldn’t have been walking home by myself, that I should have more sense as a middle-aged woman,” she said.

“I gave them the registration and said, ‘you need to go out and find him before he throws some girl into the boot of his car’.

“I hadn’t been drinking, but I could see why, if you were a bit drunk, you might not even notice that he wasn’t a taxi driver and get in the car with him,” she said.

Other locations brought to the attention of Cllr Hanley included a laneway in Renmore, the Briarhill pedestrian pathway, and Cabbage Lane near Cill Ard in Bohermore.

One woman even highlighted Eyre Square as a potentially dangerous and poorly lit part of Galway.

Cllr Hanley said he was “taken aback by just the sheer amount of spaces that have been flagged as concerning, that just means the council and all those involved with the management of public spaces need to double on down their efforts to make sure that everybody is included in these spaces”.

He has now submitted the responses and suggestions to the Council’s Public Realm Strategy steering group, members of which have already contacted Cllr Hanley to develop a more co-ordinated approach.

This is still to be considered formally by the group since it only meets quarterly.

“It is a gap in our Public Realm Strategy that safety, although mentioned once or twice, isn’t an overarching thematic issue to be addressed, and I don’t think a gendered perspective to planning has been something that has been done fully in the council,” he said.

While it is now a matter of finding a funding stream for these public projects, Cllr Hanley is aware of its importance to the public.

“A lot of women might not go out for a walk or run at night after 6pm because it gets too dark. But if we create spaces where they feel safe that they can do that, then we created a culture where there are more people out and about in their local communities and that alone might be preventative,” he said.

Cllr Hanley recognized that there are “more meaningful and larger impacts that we need to make, and we need to start a broader conversation amongst men about the changes we need to see,” but also that “that designing out crime does matter, designing out negative behaviour can make a positive difference.”