Which are the best family areas to live in Cork?

Question

I'll be moving to Cork next year and I need some advice on the best areas to live. The areas I have looked at are;

Carrigaline

Glanmire

Blackrock

Bishopstown

Rochestown

Blarney

Ballincollig

Douglas

Wilton

Monenotte

Are these good areas to live? Can you give me idea on a 1-10 scale? 1 being the best & 10 the least. Also I want to find out about schools. Is there a website I can go to and check schools for exam results etc?

If there are any other area you can suggest it would be much aprreciated. I'm willing to stay up to a 40 min drive from the city centre

Answer 1

I have lived in Ballincollig for 12 years. It is on the outskirts of Cork city so it very near to everything. I even went to school there. So I will give it 10 out of 10. Here is a link about Ballincollig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballincolli...

Here is another link about the schools in Cork. Ballincollig schools are on the link.

http://www.slss.ie/school/list?place_id=...

I wish you well in your search.

Answer 2

They're all pretty good areas, I think the best for a family would be Carrigaline, Glanmire, and Ballincollig, since they are a bit outside the city and there's more green and space for children. I suggest you take into consideration also Midleton, it's a 15-20 minutes drive from the city centre and there are all the amenities of a medium sized town (24 hour Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, clothes shops, all major banks, etc).  

Answer 3

Carrigaline

And I'd advise you not to go to Monenotte or Wilton but that's just my opinion, I'm living near Youghal now but I used to live in Bishopstown when I was in college, it's okay but there are better family areas.

Blarney would be a nice choice too, I think that may be the furthest from city center but it's less then 40mins for sure!

Answer 4

carrigaline, its only 20Min's from the city and a town square is currently being built with a few shops and maybe a cinema also a new irish secondary school is being built for this time next year. There's supervalu,Dunne'ss, lidl 3 banks a credit union a playground and youth center which recently won money to fund it. the buses are like every 20 mins if not sooner!!

so ya i think carrigaline!

Answer 5

Well I grew up in Ballincollig and I would not recommend it.

I know no one likes the place they grew up but...

It just seems to me an unfriendly town.

Primary Schools:

Scoil Mhuire was run like a convent when I was there as a child, most of the teachers were far too strict, I once witnessed a particular teacher grab a little girl by the tie and drag her across the room.

They truly seemed to hate children, at least that's how they made us feel, some of the years I spent there were the most unhappy of my life.

I must say though that the Principal of the time was one of the nicest people I ever met, and many of the other teachers were also, but there was something wrong that these aggressive and troubled individuals were allowed to stay at the school.

I did not go to Scoil Eoin but I found in secondary school that none of the boys who had been there had any standard of Irish whatsoever, they could just about say they went to the shop.

Secondary schools:

I think Colaiste Cholim was a good school, I am glad I went there, the facilities were good and so were the teachers.Many of them really go out of their way to help students when they can.

However Ashton in Cork has the best reputation. My mother taught a class there once and she said they were the most polite and happiest seeming teenagers she had ever met, and any of the people I know that went there loved it. (which is a rare thing to say for a secondary school!)

The only downside of it I can see is that you never meet people you would usually see as "tough" so you never have any friends like that and you never come to understand that when a person acts or speaks in a certain way it does not necessarily mean they are threatening or that they aren't wonderful people, it just comes from the environment in which they grew up. i.e. Many people who went to Ashton have an illogical terror of anyone in a track-suit.  

Answer 6

Douglas is known to be a good area and montenotte also has a reputation for being a bit posh. I lived in ballincollig. It was fine, nothing special, close to everything, but very built up.

Blarney is nice too, but its a good bit further out than the other immediate suburbs you mentioned. Theres nothing wrong with any of the areas you mentioned, some are just a bit nicer than others.

By the way glanmire is nice too, it kind of has a seperate village feel to it.