Photo: P L Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0DEIS support is widespread around Milford: 67% of schools, above Co. Donegal’s towns and Irish towns
Set beside other towns, Milford comes out above both Co. Donegal’s towns (38%) and Irish towns (35%). DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas, reaches 2 of its 3 schools; across Ireland, 30%. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never 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 Milford’s schools
A choice beyond the church schools
Most schools in Ireland have a church patron; here more of them are multi- or inter-denominational than in most places (14% across Ireland). They are Loreto Community School (810) and Mulroy College (617). Who runs them ↓
Extra support for many schools
Many schools here are in DEIS, which gives schools in disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and help; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. In DEIS: Mulroy College (617) and S.N. Mhuire (218). Who runs them ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Milford’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
1 of Milford’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Donegal ETB (1), Bishop of Raphoe (1) and Donegal ETB & Bishop of Raphoe (1). 2 of the 3 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.
Where the 3 schools in and around Milford 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 Milford’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 Milford
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 3 schools in and around Milford teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Milford’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Donegal’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 Milford | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 51% | 62% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 10% | 6% |
| Girls | 52% | 49% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 0% | 13% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
51% of the pupils around Milford are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (62% in Co. Donegal). Set beside Ireland, post-primary pupils at single-sex schools stand out most: 0% against 29%. The largest DEIS school here is Mulroy College, with 617 pupils.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mulroy CollegePost-primary · ETB | 617 | 46% | ✓ | |
| S.N. MhuirePrimary | 218 | 51% | ✓ | |
| Loreto Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | 810 | 56% |
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.
The 3 patrons of Milford’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
3 patrons run the 3 schools around Milford; the largest, Donegal ETB & Bishop of Raphoe, has 1 of them and 49% of the pupils. Education and Training Boards run 2 of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donegal ETB & Bishop of RaphoeLoreto | Inter-denominational | 1 | 810 |
| Donegal ETBMulroy College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 617 |
| Bishop of RaphoeS.N. Mhuire | Catholic | 1 | 218 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Milford
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
Of these 3 schools, 2 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 0 have lost as much; Ireland’s 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 Milford
Each school in or within 3 km of Milford links to a page of its own. Without school-level results from Ireland, the cards show no letters.
Inspection reports for Milford’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
Reports come from whole-school evaluations (teaching, learning, leadership and management), subject inspections and follow-through visits that check earlier advice; gov.ie publishes each one with the school’s response.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 3 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Mulroy CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. MhuirePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Loreto Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Milford
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Families in Milford have 2 post-primary schools within 10 km: one ETB school and one community school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mulroy CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 617 | 0.5 km |
| Loreto Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 810 | 0.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Milford
No special school is in or near Milford. 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.
Milford beside the 131 other Irish towns of 800 to 1,500 people
Schools in or within 3 km of each town, by population; none is ranked, as Ireland publishes no results
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rochfortbridge | 1,498 | 2 | 1,343 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballyragget | 1,116 | 1 | 163 | 0 | 0% | 8 km |
| Ballinamore | 1,112 | 2 | 573 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
| Buttevant | 1,080 | 2 | 802 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| Curragh Camp | 1,076 | 8 | 1,733 | 1 | 38% | 1.2 km |
| Milford | 1,076 | 3 | 1,645 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Rathvilly | 1,074 | 2 | 248 | 0 | 50% | 6.3 km |
| Dunlavin | 1,074 | 3 | 1,103 | 0 | 33% | 0.6 km |
| Granard | 1,058 | 6 | 1,295 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| Kilmeage | 1,054 | 2 | 357 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballon | 801 | 1 | 239 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
Of the other 131 towns, 13 have more pupils at the schools around them than Milford. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 15 of the 132.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Milford
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 Milford had 1,341 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,645 in 2025/26. S.N. Mhuire grew most: +25% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Milford
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 Milford
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milford | 3 | 1,645 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Ramelton 6.6 km | 4 | 354 | 0 | 50% | 6.7 km |
| Letterkenny 15 km | 15 | 6,825 | 2 | 20% | 0.4 km |
| Newtowncunningham 16 km | 2 | 280 | 0 | 50% | 14 km |
| Buncrana 17 km | 7 | 2,583 | 2 | 43% | 0.6 km |
Letterkenny has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Of Milford’s neighbours, Letterkenny saw the most growth in pupils since 2019/20 (+18%) and Newtowncunningham the least (−11%); Milford itself: +11%.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Milford 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 Milford
How many schools are there in Milford?
In Milford or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 2 secondary schools, with 1,645 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Milford that teach through Irish?
None in Milford 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 Milford?
No: all 2 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Milford?
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 Milford?
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).