By David Cendon Garcia

A local councilor’s call for women to highlight areas of town where they felt threatened or in danger saw him overwhelmed with responses.

And Cllr Owen Hanley said he could already see many black spots across the city which he said ‘come together significantly as being of similar concern’.

The Social Democrat adviser has 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 consider unsafe.

The aim was to bring to the attention of Galway City Council areas that could be repaired or improved to better keep everyone safe.

But the responses identified areas across the city.

A woman pointed out that the footpath on Upper Salthill between Blackrock and the caravan park was of concern to her – referring to a ‘questionable experience’ she had had.

“It was the summer of 2020. I was at the Salthill Summer Garden’s Festival next to the Caravan Park. I left before the end. It was probably around a quarter past ten and I was walking along Upper Salthill Road, but it was a bit dark there so I was trying to flag down a cab,’ she said.

“I held out my hands as the cars were passing, and a guy stopped and offered to pick me up. I told him I didn’t want to take the elevator with him. He became very aggressive with me and told me to ‘put the fuck in the car,'” she added.

She went on to say that it was only the timely arrival of a real taxi that scared the man away before he could get out of his car and drive away.

“I phoned Garda station, and they said I shouldn’t have walked home alone, that I should have more common sense as a middle-aged woman,” he said. she declared.

“I gave them the sign and said, ‘You need to get out and find him before he throws a girl in the trunk of his car.

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

Other locations that came to Cllr Hanley’s attention included a lane in Renmore, the Briarhill footpath and Cabbage Lane near Cill Ard in Bohermore.

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

Cllr Hanley said he was “surprised by the sheer number of spaces that have been flagged as being of concern, it just means that the council and everyone involved in the management of public spaces needs to redouble their efforts to ensure that everyone is included in these spaces”.

He has now submitted the responses and suggestions to the Council’s Public Domain Strategy Steering Group, whose members have already contacted Cllr Hanley to develop a more coordinated approach.

This has yet to be formally reviewed by the group as it only meets quarterly.

“It is a gap in our public domain strategy that security, although mentioned once or twice, is not an overarching thematic issue to address, and I do not believe that a gender perspective of planning has been something that was entirely realized in the consultancy,” he said.

If it is now a question of finding a source of funding for these public projects, Cllr Hanley is aware of its importance to the public.

“A lot of women don’t go out for a walk or run at night after 6 p.m. because it’s too dark. But if we create spaces where they feel safe to be able to do that, then we have created a culture where there are more people in their local communities and that alone could be preventative,” he said.

Cllr Hanley acknowledged that there are “bigger and bigger impacts that we need to have, and we need to start a wider conversation between men about the changes we need to see”, but also that “the design of crime is important, designing negative behavior can make a positive difference.