Photo: Gordon Hatton · CC BY-SA 2.0The schools around Drimoleague have fewer pupils than in 2019/20: −14%, below Co. Cork’s towns and Irish towns
That puts Drimoleague below both Co. Cork’s towns (+1%) and Irish towns (+4%). Its schools have 121 pupils, 14% fewer than in 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.
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 Drimoleague’s schools
Fewer pupils than before
Pupil numbers at the schools here have fallen since 2019/20, against +5% across Ireland. 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 Drimoleague 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 Drimoleague’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 Drimoleague
Each September’s pupils at every school in or within 3 km of the town, counted where the school stands today.
The schools in and around Drimoleague had 151 pupils in 2015/16 and 121 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Drimoleague
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 Drimoleague’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Drimoleague’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Cork & Ross (3). 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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Drimoleague
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Drimoleague teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Drimoleague’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.
| Share of pupils | Around Drimoleague | Co. Cork | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 18% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 8% | 6% |
| Girls | 56% | 49% | 49% |
Around Drimoleague, 0% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 18% in Co. Cork. The biggest difference from Ireland is in girls: 56% here, 49% there.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drimoleague Junior SchPrimary | 54 | 54% | ||
| Dromdhallagh N.S.Primary | 53 | 57% | ||
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | 14 | 64% |
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.
One patron for Drimoleague’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Bishop of Cork & Ross is patron of every school around Drimoleague.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of Cork & RossDrimoleague Junior Sch, Dromdhallagh, Scoil Mhuire | Catholic | 3 | 121 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Drimoleague
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, 0 of these 3 schools have grown by 5% or more and 3 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.
The 3 schools in and around Drimoleague
Each school in or within 3 km of Drimoleague links to a page of its own. Ireland doesn’t publish results for individual schools, so none of these carries a letter.
Inspection reports for Drimoleague’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
Inspectors visit every kind of school. Whole-school evaluations look at teaching and learning, leadership and management; subject inspections look at one subject; follow-through inspections check whether earlier advice was taken. Each report is published 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 |
|---|---|
| Drimoleague Junior SchPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Dromdhallagh N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Drimoleague
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
No post-primary school is within 10 km of Drimoleague; the nearest is Maria Immaculata Community College, 12 km away.
Drimoleague beside the 263 other Irish towns of 300 to 700 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shanagarry | 700 | 2 | 201 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| … | ||||||
| Nurney | 497 | 1 | 183 | 0 | 0% | 8.5 km |
| Tievebane | 495 | 2 | 407 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
| Smithborough | 495 | 2 | 240 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
| Suncroft | 491 | 2 | 222 | 0 | 50% | 4.9 km |
| Drimoleague | 486 | 3 | 121 | 0 | 0% | 12 km |
| Blackwater | 485 | 1 | 218 | 0 | 0% | 8.9 km |
| Cluain Bú | 484 | 2 | 410 | 1 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| Carrigallen | 481 | 2 | 511 | 0 | 50% | 0.1 km |
| Kilnaleck | 481 | 4 | 406 | 0 | 25% | 8.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 196 of the other 263 towns than around Drimoleague. 22 of the 264 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 Drimoleague
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drimoleague | 3 | 121 | 0 | 0% | 12 km |
| Dunmanway 12 km | 5 | 1,019 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Skibbereen 12 km | 5 | 1,562 | 1 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Bantry 13 km | 4 | 1,227 | 1 | 0% | 0.9 km |
Skibbereen has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Drimoleague changed by −14%; among its neighbours, Dunmanway’s grew most (+15%) and Bantry’s least (+2%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Drimoleague 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 Drimoleague
How many schools are there in Drimoleague?
In Drimoleague or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools, with 121 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Drimoleague that teach through Irish?
None in Drimoleague or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Drimoleague?
Not in Drimoleague or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Maria Immaculata Community College, 12 km away.
What is the best school in Drimoleague?
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 Drimoleague?
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).