Photo: Jonathan Billinger · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Dunmanway take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Cork’s towns and Irish towns
Set beside other towns, Dunmanway comes out below both Co. Cork’s towns (44%) and Irish towns (39%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Maria Immaculata Community College, has 642 pupils. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Schools in the town or within 3 km of its outline, Department of Education lists for 2025/26; the Ireland figures cover all schools listed.
What stands out about Dunmanway’s schools
One school growing fast
The fastest-growing school here is Maria Immaculata Community College: 503 pupils in 2019/20, 642 now. Getting a place ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
The 5 schools in and around Dunmanway
Here are the schools in Dunmanway or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Results by school aren’t published in Ireland, so the cards carry none.
Where the 5 schools in and around Dunmanway 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 Dunmanway’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 Dunmanway
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 5 schools in and around Dunmanway teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Dunmanway’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against 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 Dunmanway | Co. Cork | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 18% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 8% | 6% |
| Girls | 51% | 49% | 49% |
Fewer of the pupils around Dunmanway are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 0% against 27% (Co. Cork: 18%). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%.
Each of the 5 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria Immaculata Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 642 | 52% | ||
| Dunmanway Convent InfPrimary | 102 | 60% | ||
| Dunmanway Model N.S.Primary | 95 | 46% | ||
| Dunmanway Convent Girls Senior National SchoolPrimary | 91 | 95% | ||
| Dunmanway Boys Senior National SchoolPrimary | 89 | 0% |
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 Dunmanway’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
3 of Dunmanway’s 5 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Cork & Ross (3), Cork ETB (1) and Minister for Education & Skills (1). None of the 5 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 3 patrons of Dunmanway’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Of the 5 schools around Dunmanway, 3 have Bishop of Cork & Ross as patron, teaching 28% of the pupils; 3 patrons in all. An Education and Training Board runs one of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of Cork & RossDunmanway Convent Inf, Dunmanway Convent Girls Senior, Dunmanway Boys Senior | Catholic | 3 | 282 |
| Cork ETBMaria Immaculata | Inter-denominational | 1 | 642 |
| Minister for Education & SkillsDunmanway Model | Church of Ireland | 1 | 95 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Dunmanway
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
1 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 2 have shrunk by as much, out of 5; 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 Dunmanway’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and 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 5 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Maria Immaculata Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Dunmanway Convent InfPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Dunmanway Model N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Dunmanway Convent Girls Senior National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Dunmanway Boys Senior National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Dunmanway
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Dunmanway is Maria Immaculata Community College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria Immaculata Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 642 | 0.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Dunmanway
No special school is in or near Dunmanway. 1 of the 4 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.
Dunmanway beside the 90 other Irish towns of 1,400 to 2,700 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callan | 2,678 | 2 | 1,112 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Enniskerry | 2,000 | 10 | 2,487 | 0 | 20% | 2.9 km |
| Termonfeckin | 1,983 | 2 | 508 | 0 | 0% | 5.4 km |
| Strandhill | 1,982 | 1 | 252 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| Cloyne | 1,967 | 2 | 653 | 0 | 0% | 5.8 km |
| Dunmanway | 1,964 | 5 | 1,019 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Rathcormac | 1,957 | 3 | 715 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| Banagher | 1,907 | 3 | 877 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Abbeyleix | 1,897 | 2 | 353 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| Ashford | 1,892 | 4 | 1,116 | 1 | 25% | 4.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Stradbally | 1,404 | 2 | 375 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 27 of the other 90 towns than around Dunmanway. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 15 of the 91.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Dunmanway
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 Dunmanway had 839 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,019 in 2025/26. Maria Immaculata Community College grew most: +28% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Dunmanway
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.
Schools in the towns around Dunmanway
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunmanway | 5 | 1,019 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Clonakilty 19 km | 6 | 2,124 | 1 | 0% | 0.5 km |
Clonakilty has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Dunmanway 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 Dunmanway
How many schools are there in Dunmanway?
In Dunmanway or within 3 km of it: 4 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,019 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Dunmanway that teach through Irish?
None in Dunmanway 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 Dunmanway?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Dunmanway?
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 Dunmanway?
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).