Photo: Deadstar · CC BY-SA 3.0The schools around Ballyconnell have grown: pupils +21% since 2019/20, more than around Co. Cavan’s towns or Irish towns
That leaves Ballyconnell above both Co. Cavan’s towns (+9%) and Irish towns (+4%). Pupils: 292, up 21% since 2019/20. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
Every school in the town or within 3 km of its outline, from the Department of Education’s lists for 2025/26; Ireland’s figures are every school in the lists.
What stands out about Ballyconnell’s schools
More pupils every year
Pupil numbers at the schools here have grown faster than across Ireland (+5% since 2019/20), so classes and new places are a question worth asking. Pupils over time ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Where the 3 schools in and around Ballyconnell are
Each school where the official list places it, shaded by who runs it and sized by pupils; squares are secondary schools, triangles special schools. The dashed shape is Ballyconnell’s outline; schools within 3 km of it count.
Places from the Department of Education’s school lists (its own coordinates for all but a handful); map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Pupil numbers around Ballyconnell
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Ballyconnell had 233 pupils in 2015/16 and 292 in 2025/26. S.N. Greach Rathain grew most: +57% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballyconnell
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September each year, 2015/16 to 2025/26 (preliminary), for every school placed in the area today; schools that have since closed or merged count where they stood.
The 3 schools in and around Ballyconnell
Here are the schools in Ballyconnell or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Teaching through Irish in and around Ballyconnell
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 3 schools in and around Ballyconnell teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Ballyconnell’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Cavan’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Ballyconnell | Co. Cavan | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 25% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 1% | 6% |
| Girls | 51% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 0% of the pupils around Ballyconnell, a smaller share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Cavan: 25%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballyconnell Mxd N.S.Primary | 199 | 53% | ||
| Ballyconell Central N.S.Primary | 24 | 58% | ||
| S.N. Greach RathainPrimary | 69 | 41% |
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary): enrolments by sex and the DEIS list. Shares are of pupils, not of schools; a county’s are the schools listed with its towns.
Who runs Ballyconnell’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Ballyconnell’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kilmore (2) and Bishop of Kilmore Elphin & Ardagh COI (1). None of the 3 is in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas (30% across Ireland).
Department of Education school lists: ethos 2025/26, patron 2024/25 (the 2025/26 lists don’t give it). DEIS list 2025/26.
The 2 patrons of Ballyconnell’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
2 patrons run the 3 schools around Ballyconnell; the largest, Bishop of Kilmore, has 2 of them and 92% of the pupils.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of KilmoreBallyconnell Mxd, S.N. Greach Rathain | Catholic | 2 | 268 |
| Bishop of Kilmore Elphin & Ardagh COIBallyconell Central | Church of Ireland | 1 | 24 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ballyconnell
Starting primary school
Children can start primary school once they are four, and must be in school by six. Families apply to each school directly. Every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice; a school with more applicants than places admits on the criteria in its policy. Since the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, a Catholic or other majority-faith primary school can’t put baptised children first; a school of a minority faith still can, to keep its ethos.
Moving to secondary school
Children move to post-primary school at about twelve, after sixth class. Again, families apply to each school, usually a year or more ahead, and an oversubscribed school admits on its published criteria, often brothers and sisters and its feeder primary schools.
Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018; each school’s admission policy and notice are on its own website.
Which schools are growing
Since 2019/20, 2 of these 3 schools have grown by 5% or more and 0 have shrunk as much; across Ireland the number of pupils changed by +5%.
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September, 2019/20 and 2025/26 (preliminary). No capacity is published, so how full a school is can’t be shown.
Inspection reports for Ballyconnell’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
Each school is visited by inspectors from time to time, for a whole-school evaluation of teaching, learning and leadership, for one subject, or to follow up earlier advice, and every report is posted on gov.ie with the school’s response.
The reports describe what inspectors saw and what each school should do next. They give no overall grade, so none is shown here; the 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Ballyconnell Mxd N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Ballyconell Central N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Greach RathainPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Ballyconnell
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Within 10 km of Ballyconnell there are 2 post-primary schools: 2 ETB schools. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Mogue's CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 310 | 6.6 km |
| St Bricin's CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 281 | 8.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Ballyconnell
No special school is in or near Ballyconnell. 1 of the 3 primary schools have special classes for children who need more support. Their cards ↑
Special schools and primary schools with special classes as the Department lists them; the National Council for Special Education places pupils in special classes.
Ballyconnell beside the 128 other Irish towns of 1,000 to 1,900 people
Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbeyleix | 1,897 | 2 | 353 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Foxford | 1,452 | 2 | 753 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| Slane | 1,445 | 1 | 254 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Aughrim | 1,437 | 2 | 326 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Moroe | 1,432 | 2 | 345 | 0 | 0% | 1.3 km |
| Ballyconnell | 1,422 | 3 | 292 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| Muff | 1,418 | 1 | 196 | 0 | 0% | 14 km |
| Oldcastle | 1,409 | 2 | 852 | 0 | 50% | 0.4 km |
| Stradbally | 1,404 | 2 | 375 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Moville | 1,390 | 5 | 1,100 | 1 | 40% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Carragh | 1,006 | 2 | 1,383 | 0 | 0% | 3.5 km |
Of the other 128 towns, 109 have more pupils at the schools around them than Ballyconnell. 15 of the 129 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Ballyconnell
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballyconnell | 3 | 292 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| Belturbet 9 km | 4 | 551 | 0 | 50% | 0.2 km |
| Ballinamore 16 km | 2 | 573 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
The roll around Ballyconnell moved +21% since 2019/20; nearby, Belturbet grew most (+22%) and Ballinamore least (+21%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballyconnell or within 3 km of its outline, as the Department places it: families here use them. Schools further out are on the map of each school’s own page.
- The kinds of school. Primary schools take children from junior infants to sixth class, about ages 4 to 12. Post-primary schools teach the Junior and Leaving Certificate, about ages 12 to 18: voluntary secondary schools (mostly with a religious patron), ETB schools and community colleges run by an Education and Training Board, and community and comprehensive schools. Special schools teach children with particular needs.
- Teaching through Irish. All-Irish: every subject taught through Irish, in the Gaeltacht or, outside it, a Gaelscoil or Gaelcholáiste. Partly in Irish: an Irish stream (some classes entirely through Irish) or some subjects through Irish. Every other school teaches Irish as a subject.
- DEIS. DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) gives schools serving disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and support; the Department decides which schools are in it.
- Ethos and patron. Most Irish schools are owned by a patron, mostly a church; the patron sets the school’s ethos. Multi-denominational schools (Educate Together, many ETB schools) teach children of every faith and none together.
- No grade. Section 53 of the Education Act 1998 lets the Minister refuse to release information that would allow schools’ exam results to be compared, and no results are published school by school. So Ireland’s schools have no letters and its towns no School Grade; nothing on this page ranks them.
- What isn’t here. What the UK and French pages show from results, these can’t: results charts, results against pupils’ backgrounds and towns ranked by their schools (no published results), and how full each school is (no capacity is published). Every post-primary school teaches to the Leaving Certificate, so there is no sixth-form split to show.
- Inspections. The Inspectorate’s reports are linked from each school’s page. They give no overall grade, so none is shown.
- The year. The 2025/26 lists are the Department’s preliminary release; numbers can change a little in the final lists.
Questions about schools in Ballyconnell
How many schools are there in Ballyconnell?
In Ballyconnell or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools, with 292 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballyconnell that teach through Irish?
None in Ballyconnell or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Ballyconnell?
Not in Ballyconnell or within 3 km of it; the nearest is St. Mogue's College, 6.6 km away.
What is the best school in Ballyconnell?
We don’t say. Ireland publishes no exam results school by school, and section 53 of the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them; a ranking would rest on guesses. Each school’s page has its own facts and a link to its inspection reports, and visiting the schools you are weighing is still the best guide.
How do I get a place at a school in Ballyconnell?
Apply to each school directly: every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice with its dates. If it has more applicants than places, it admits on the criteria in its policy.
Sources: Department of Education, school lists 2025/26 (preliminary) and enrolments since 2015/16, CC BY 4.0 · one school placed with OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).