Mapping the Village: A Better Directory for Coolock

A successful community platform isn’t just about what you see on the screen—it’s about the information that powers it. We are making sure every business, service, and public utility in Coolock is accurately represented online, but we can’t do it alone.

Help Us Map the Village

If you run a local business or frequently visit one, take a moment to look at our Village Directory.

Does your favorite coffee shop have its opening hours listed? Is the Eircode correct? If anything is missing, repairing it takes just a minute. Click Improve Listing on any business page to see exactly what information we still need.

By contributing, you are directly helping neighbors and visitors find local services, keeping money in the community, and ensuring our village isn’t left off the map in the digital age.

Why Better Information Matters

Over the last month, we have significantly upgraded how the Coolock Village website handles data behind the scenes. While these technical changes (known as schema and API updates) might sound complex, their real-world impact is simple: they ensure our community data is robust, shareable, and future-proof.

Here is why we are investing in this foundation—and why we believe Dublin City Council and other neighborhoods should follow suit:

1. Linking the Digital World

Coolock Village has a thriving local economy, but many businesses are fractured across different digital platforms. Some are on Google Maps, others only exist on a Facebook page, and some are entirely missing from modern navigation apps like Waze or Apple Maps.

We have rebuilt our core directory to link all these platforms together. By maintaining a single, central record for every business, we can automatically identify where a shop might be missing a digital presence and help the owners fix it.

2. Precise Locations: Eircodes Over Plain Text

When someone searches for a business or reports a broken streetlight, “Main Street, Coolock” isn’t accurate enough.

We are moving away from plain-text addresses and relying heavily on Eircodes and exact GPS coordinates. An Eircode provides an unambiguous, digital-first location that mapping apps, delivery drivers, and emergency services can instantly recognize. By standardizing on Eircodes, we ensure our directory is completely compatible with national and global systems, removing the confusion of overlapping or poorly formatted addresses.

3. Live Civic Data at Your Fingertips

Decisions are often made because people simply don’t have access to the right data. Information on local planning applications and civic services was previously hidden behind opaque council portals.

We have integrated live data streams (via API connections) directly into our platform. For example, our new Civic Dashboard now pulls planning applications directly from national systems in real time. We built this to be resilient—even working when your mobile connection drops—so residents are always informed about developments happening in their own backyards.

Here’s a glimpse behind the scenes at our newest OpenAPI addition powering the Civic Dashboard:

/api/civic/planning:
  get:
    tags: [CivicDashboard]
    summary: Fetch planning applications from ArcGIS
    operationId: getPlanningApplications
    description: |
      Fetches planning applications from the National Planning Application Sites
      ArcGIS REST endpoint.
    responses:
      "200":
        description: Successful response
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              type: object

A Model for Dublin

We believe Coolock can serve as a template for the rest of Dublin. By adopting open standards, relying on precise location data like Eircodes, and making civic information instantly accessible, we are building infrastructure that empowers the community.

Every new feature we add has one underlying goal: making Coolock the most data-driven, engaged, and well-represented village in Ireland. Together, we can put our village firmly on the map.