Few schools around Ballygar teach through Irish: 0%, below Co. Galway’s towns and Irish towns
Measured that way, Ballygar is below both Co. Galway’s towns (15%) and Irish towns (8%). All 3 of its schools are Catholic: there is no other kind within 3 km. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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 Ballygar’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
The fastest-growing school here is Coláiste Mhuire: 242 pupils in 2019/20, 306 now. Getting a place ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Ballygar
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Ballygar had 348 pupils in 2015/16 and 411 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballygar
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 Ballygar’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Ballygar’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Elphin (2) and Board of Trustees of Scoil Mhuire, Ballygar (1). 1 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.
The 3 schools in and around Ballygar
Every school in Ballygar or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Where the 3 schools in and around Ballygar 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 Ballygar’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 Ballygar
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Ballygar teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Ballygar’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Galway’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 Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 20% | 21% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 14% | 6% |
| Girls | 52% | 49% | 49% |
Fewer of the pupils around Ballygar are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 20% against 27% (Co. Galway: 21%). Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 0% against 6%. Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, with 81 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste MhuirePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 306 | 52% | ||
| Scoil Mhuire Gan SmalPrimary | 81 | 53% | ✓ | |
| Mount Talbot N.S.Primary | 24 | 50% |
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 Ballygar’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
Bishop of Elphin is patron of 2 of the 3 schools around Ballygar, which teach 26% of their pupils; 2 patrons run them in all.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of ElphinScoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Mount Talbot | Catholic | 2 | 105 |
| Board of Trustees of Scoil Mhuire, BallygarColáiste Mhuire | Catholic | 1 | 306 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ballygar
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
Between 2019/20 and now, 1 of the 2 grew by 5% or more and 0 shrank as much, while Ireland’s pupil numbers moved +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 Ballygar’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and 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 |
|---|---|
| Coláiste MhuirePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Mhuire Gan SmalPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Mount Talbot N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Ballygar
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Ballygar is Coláiste Mhuire, a voluntary secondary school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste MhuireVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 306 | 0.3 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Ballygar beside the 169 other Irish towns of 500 to 900 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cratloe | 899 | 1 | 278 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballitore | 667 | 1 | 259 | 0 | 0% | 9.4 km |
| An Rinn | 665 | 3 | 332 | 3 | 33% | 0.3 km |
| Bennettsbridge | 664 | 1 | 206 | 0 | 0% | 7 km |
| Dunmore | 664 | 3 | 605 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Ballygar | 660 | 3 | 411 | 0 | 33% | 0.3 km |
| Ballyroan | 657 | 1 | 177 | 0 | 0% | 7 km |
| Cloghan | 654 | 1 | 93 | 0 | 100% | 6.2 km |
| Hacketstown | 653 | 2 | 507 | 0 | 50% | 0.1 km |
| Calverstown | 652 | 2 | 166 | 0 | 0% | 6.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Stradbally | 500 | 2 | 134 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
Of these 169 other towns, 57 count more pupils at their schools than Ballygar. Within 3 km, 15 of these 170 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Ballygar
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballygar | 3 | 411 | 0 | 33% | 0.3 km |
| Roscommon 15 km | 7 | 2,589 | 1 | 29% | 0.7 km |
Roscommon has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballygar 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 Ballygar
How many schools are there in Ballygar?
In Ballygar or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 411 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballygar that teach through Irish?
None in Ballygar 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 Ballygar?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Ballygar?
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 Ballygar?
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).