Hiya
We have been living in Hunterswood for almost 3 years. We are very happy here with no problems at all. Its a great location as everything is on the doorstep. As you've said the M50 is a great advantage. There are plenty of shops around too, Superquinn in Knocklyon, Tesco in Rathfarnham and Super Valu in Firhouse. There are a couple of nice pubs. Scholars and the Knocklyon Inn are nice for a quiet drink or 5. Five minutes drive will have you in the Dublin mountains where there are lots of nice forest walks. All the main shoppping centres are easily accessible, Dundrum, Liffey Valley and even Blanchardstown. I don't use the bus service except to get into town at the weekends. The 49 is ok but the 15 is a more regular service. There are also a number of primary and secondary schools in the area, but I don't know too much about them.
The traffic onto the M50 in the mornings is pretty hectic. It can take anything up to 30 minutes on a wet morning to reach the M50 but usually 10/15 minutes. This is mainly due IMO to northbound motorists exiting at Firhouse, rejoining the M50 and then driving up and down the Tallaght exit in order to rejoin the traffic after the Tallaght exit. They are preventing drivers from Ballycullen/Firhouse enterering the roundabout thus creating the tailback. There is a thread about it if you do a search. In fact if you do a search for "ballycullen" it will throw up a few discussions about the area.
Ellier have just started building a new development beside Woodstown. There are some new developments around Stocking Lane but this shouldn't affect Ballycullen.
All in all it gets the thumbs up from me.