Wheel balancing etc

Balancing is spreading the weight even across your wheel using little stick on weights

Alignment is pointing the car straight

Tracking is pointing the wheels straight

Check tyre pressures are all correct, check for uneven wear on tyres. Ideally measure thread depth using something accurate.

Surely aligning the wheels points the car straight. I thought it was two words to describe the same thing.

To the OP yes, incorrect alignment can cause the car to pull to one side. It's not expensive to get your wheels aligned (or tracked)

You would ring up and explain the problem. The garage would probably suggest tracking as a first course of action

IMO alighment and tracking is the same thing.

Balancing is totally different.

Generally balacing is something you do to the wheels. If you balance the wheels, and put them on a different car, they still will be balanced. It's to make sure they are equally weighted and won't cause vibration when rotating while driving. It should be done every time tyre is fitted to the rim.

Alignment/tracking is a thing done to your car suspension, to adjust the angles of your wheels. If you do wheel alignment, and put different set of wheels on your car, it still will be aligned. It should be done from time to time, and when suspecting that it's off.

Incorrect wheel balancing will most likely cause vibrations at certain speeds. Very often those vibration can be felt on your steering wheel when driving.

Incorrect alignment/tracking can cause many issues like uneven tyre wear, bad handling, tendency for the car to pull to one side, or even making car very unpredictable to handle (tendency for oversteering, understeering, or feel of playing left or right on uneven surface), etc.

That under consideration though, that if car is pulling to left or right, it doesn't necesserily need to be incorrect alighment. It well could be caused by tyres itself, and IMO it's the most frequent cause for pulling to one side. Tyres are never exactly even in size, and this tiny bit of difference can actually make a difference. Had it many times, and sometimes just simple rotating tyres between left/right/back/front helped.

In general in Ireland all cars should pull to the left slightly because that's the direction the roads are cambered for drainage and to send uncontrolled vehicles off to the left rather than into oncoming traffic.

If you're constantly pulling right or having to use a lot of force to stop it going left, then there's an issue alright.