Photo: Sleepyhead2 · CC BY-SA 3.0Around Mín Lárach, 100% of schools get DEIS support, more than around Co. Donegal’s towns or Irish towns
Around Mín Lárach, 100% of schools are in DEIS, above both Co. Donegal’s towns (38%) and Irish towns (35%). 6 of its 6 schools are in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas, against 30% across Ireland. 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 Mín Lárach’s schools
Mostly taught through Irish
Most schools here are in the Gaeltacht and teach through Irish; across Ireland, 8% of schools teach only through it. They are Scoil Fhionáin (204), S N Cnoc na Naomh (87), S.N. Gort an Choirce (40), Scoil Bhrighde (28) and Scoil Naomh Dubhthach (27). Language ↓
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: Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola (455), Scoil Fhionáin (204), S N Cnoc na Naomh (87) and S.N. Gort an Choirce (40), and 2 more. Who runs them ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Teaching through Irish in and around Mín Lárach
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
5 of Mín Lárach’s 6 schools teach every subject through Irish, 5 of them in the Gaeltacht: Scoil Naomh Dubhthach, S.N. Gort an Choirce and S N Cnoc na Naomh.
Who runs Mín Lárach’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
5 of Mín Lárach’s 6 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Raphoe (5) and Donegal ETB & Bishop of Raphoe (1). 6 of the 6 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 6 schools in and around Mín Lárach
Each school in or within 3 km of Mín Lárach links to a page of its own. No letters, no results: Irish schools aren’t ranked one by one.
Where the 6 schools in and around Mín Lárach 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 Mín Lárach’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.
Who Mín Lárach’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against 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 Mín Lárach | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 100% | 62% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 46% | 10% | 6% |
| Girls | 47% | 49% | 49% |
100% of the pupils around Mín Lárach are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (62% in Co. Donegal). Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 46% against 6%. Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola, with 455 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 6 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil Naomh DubhthachPrimary | 27 | 56% | ✓ | ✓ |
| S.N. Gort an ChoircePrimary | 40 | 35% | ✓ | ✓ |
| S N Cnoc na NaomhPrimary | 87 | 48% | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scoil BhrighdePrimary | 28 | 61% | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pobalscoil Chloich CheannfhaolaPost-primary · Community school | 455 | 46% | ✓ | |
| Scoil FhionáinPrimary | 204 | 48% | ✓ | ✓ |
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 2 patrons of Mín Lárach’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
2 patrons run the 6 schools around Mín Lárach; the largest, Bishop of Raphoe, has 5 of them and 46% of the pupils. An Education and Training Board runs one of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of RaphoeScoil Fhionáin, S N Cnoc na Naomh, S.N. Gort an Choirce, Scoil Bhrighde, Scoil Naomh Dubhthach | Catholic | 5 | 386 |
| Donegal ETB & Bishop of RaphoePobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola | Inter-denominational | 1 | 455 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Mín Lárach
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 6; 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 Mín Lárach’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
The Inspectorate inspects schools in several ways: a whole-school evaluation covers teaching, learning and how the school is led; a subject inspection looks at one subject; a follow-through checks on earlier advice. Reports go on gov.ie with the school’s reply.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 6 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil Naomh DubhthachPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Gort an ChoircePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S N Cnoc na NaomhPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil BhrighdePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Pobalscoil Chloich CheannfhaolaPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil FhionáinPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Mín Lárach
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 Mín Lárach is Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola, a community school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pobalscoil Chloich CheannfhaolaCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 455 | 5.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Mín Lárach
No special school is in or near Mín Lárach. 2 of the 5 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.
Mín Lárach beside the 217 other Irish towns of 300 to 600 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshford | 593 | 2 | 244 | 0 | 50% | 10 km |
| … | ||||||
| Portroe | 459 | 2 | 256 | 0 | 0% | 8.5 km |
| Slieverue | 458 | 8 | 2,514 | 0 | 0% | 3 km |
| Monivea | 456 | 2 | 450 | 0 | 0% | 8.6 km |
| Castletown | 454 | 5 | 1,192 | 0 | 40% | 2.2 km |
| Mín Lárach | 453 | 6 | 841 | 5 | 100% | 5.9 km |
| O'Briensbridge-Montpelier | 451 | 1 | 107 | 0 | 0% | 7.3 km |
| Johnstown | 450 | 2 | 749 | 0 | 100% | 1 km |
| Coachford | 450 | 2 | 1,017 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Kilmore Quay | 447 | 1 | 144 | 0 | 100% | 6.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
Of the other 217 towns, 17 have more pupils at the schools around them than Mín Lárach. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 19 of the 218.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Mín Lárach
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 Mín Lárach had 860 pupils in 2015/16 and 841 in 2025/26, fewer than before. Scoil Fhionáin grew most: +20% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Mín Lárach
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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Mín Lárach 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 Mín Lárach
How many schools are there in Mín Lárach?
In Mín Lárach or within 3 km of it: 5 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 841 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Mín Lárach that teach through Irish?
Yes, 5: Scoil Naomh Dubhthach, S.N. Gort an Choirce and S N Cnoc na Naomh teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Mín Lárach?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Mín Lárach?
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 Mín Lárach?
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).