Photo: Sarah777 · Public domainMost post-primaries around Doneraile take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Cork’s towns and Irish towns
On this, Doneraile is below both Co. Cork’s towns (44%) and Irish towns (39%). Every one of its 2 schools within 3 km has a Catholic ethos. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
Counted from the Department of Education’s 2025/26 lists: every school in the town or within 3 km of it, against every school in Ireland.
What stands out about Doneraile’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 ↓
One school growing fast
Of the schools here, Nagle Rice Secondary School has grown fastest, from 187 in 2019/20 to 260. Getting a place ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Doneraile
Pupils every September at the schools in or within 3 km of the town, each counted at today’s site.
The schools in and around Doneraile had 310 pupils in 2015/16 and 434 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Doneraile
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.
Who runs Doneraile’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Doneraile’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Edmund Rice Schools Trust (1) and Bishop of Cloyne (1). 1 of the 2 are 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 schools in and around Doneraile
Each school in or within 3 km of Doneraile links to a page of its own. Without school-level results from Ireland, the cards show no letters.
Where the 2 schools in and around Doneraile 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 Doneraile’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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Doneraile
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 2 schools in and around Doneraile teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Doneraile’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Cork’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
DEIS by stage: pupils at DEIS schools
| Share of pupils | Around Doneraile | Co. Cork | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 40% | 18% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 8% | 6% |
| Girls | 47% | 49% | 49% |
Around Doneraile, 40% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 18% in Co. Cork. Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%. The biggest school in DEIS is Canon Sheehan Primary School (174 pupils).
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nagle Rice Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 260 | 45% | ||
| Canon Sheehan Primary SchoolPrimary | 174 | 49% | ✓ |
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.
How children get a place in Doneraile
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
2 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 0 have shrunk by as much, out of 2; across Ireland: +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 Doneraile’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, 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 2 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Nagle Rice Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Canon Sheehan Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Doneraile
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Families in Doneraile have 4 post-primary schools within 10 km: 3 voluntary secondary schools and one ETB school. Of these, 2 are single-sex: 1 for girls and 1 for boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nagle Rice Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 260 | 0.6 km |
| Colaiste Pobail Naomh MhuireETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 589 | 6.5 km |
| St Mary's Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 749 | 9.2 km |
| Patrician AcademyVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 568 | 9.5 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Doneraile
No special school is in or near Doneraile. 1 of the 1 primary schools has 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.
Doneraile beside the 178 other Irish towns of 600 to 1,200 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urlingford | 1,196 | 2 | 882 | 0 | 100% | 3.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Rosses Point | 883 | 2 | 210 | 0 | 0% | 5.6 km |
| Na Forbacha | 868 | 2 | 450 | 2 | 0% | 6.3 km |
| Collon | 864 | 1 | 190 | 0 | 0% | 8.6 km |
| Balla | 860 | 2 | 678 | 0 | 0% | 0.6 km |
| Doneraile | 857 | 2 | 434 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Ballyboghil | 855 | 2 | 563 | 0 | 0% | 5.6 km |
| Scarriff-Tuamgraney | 854 | 4 | 720 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Newtownforbes | 851 | 2 | 606 | 0 | 50% | 5 km |
| Strokestown | 850 | 3 | 851 | 0 | 33% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Na Dúnaibh | 601 | 2 | 202 | 1 | 100% | 14 km |
Of these 178 other towns, 75 count more pupils at their schools than Doneraile. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 16 of the 179.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Doneraile
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doneraile | 2 | 434 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Buttevant 6.2 km | 2 | 802 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| Mallow 9.8 km | 11 | 4,357 | 1 | 18% | 0.6 km |
| Charleville 17 km | 6 | 1,334 | 0 | 50% | 0.3 km |
Mallow has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Doneraile changed by +37%; among its neighbours, Buttevant’s grew most (+25%) and Mallow’s least (+3%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Doneraile 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 Doneraile
How many schools are there in Doneraile?
In Doneraile or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 secondary school, with 434 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Doneraile that teach through Irish?
None in Doneraile or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Doneraile?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Doneraile?
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 Doneraile?
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).