Photo: Suzanne Mischyshyn · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Maigh Cuilinn, 33% of schools teach every subject through Irish, more than around Co. Galway’s towns or Irish towns
Measured that way, Maigh Cuilinn is above both Co. Galway’s towns (15%) and Irish towns (8%). One of its 3 schools teaches every subject through Irish, against 8% of schools across Ireland. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, 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 Maigh Cuilinn’s schools
More all-Irish schools than most places
Families here have more choice of a school that teaches every subject through Irish than in most of Ireland, where 8% of schools do. The school is S.N. Baile Nua (62). Language ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Where the 3 schools in and around Maigh Cuilinn 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 Maigh Cuilinn’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 Maigh Cuilinn
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
1 of Maigh Cuilinn’s 3 schools teach every subject through Irish, 1 of them in the Gaeltacht: S.N. Baile Nua.
Who runs Maigh Cuilinn’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Maigh Cuilinn’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora (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.
Who Maigh Cuilinn’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Galway’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Maigh Cuilinn | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 21% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 11% | 14% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
0% of the pupils around Maigh Cuilinn are at a DEIS school, fewer than the 27% across Ireland (21% in Co. Galway). The biggest difference from Ireland is in pupils at all-Irish schools: 11% here, 6% there.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | 396 | 51% | ||
| SN TuairiniPrimary | 84 | 43% | ||
| S.N. Baile NuaPrimary | 62 | 52% | ✓ |
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 Maigh Cuilinn’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora is patron of every school around Maigh Cuilinn.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh & KilfenoraScoil Mhuire, SN Tuairini, S.N. Baile Nua | Catholic | 3 | 542 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Maigh Cuilinn
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, 0 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 1 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 Maigh Cuilinn
Every school in Maigh Cuilinn 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.
Inspection reports for Maigh Cuilinn’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 |
|---|---|
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| SN TuairiniPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Baile NuaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Maigh Cuilinn
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Within 10 km of Maigh Cuilinn there are 2 post-primary schools: one ETB school and one voluntary secondary school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste na CoiribeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaeltacht school | 711 | 8.3 km |
| Coláiste EindeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 808 | 9.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Maigh Cuilinn beside the 100 other Irish towns of 1,600 to 3,100 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinnegad | 3,064 | 1 | 413 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Bearna | 2,336 | 10 | 4,172 | 4 | 10% | 2.8 km |
| Tubbercurry | 2,307 | 4 | 1,130 | 0 | 25% | 1.7 km |
| Thomastown | 2,305 | 2 | 732 | 0 | 50% | 0.1 km |
| Balrothery | 2,282 | 16 | 7,860 | 2 | 31% | 1.7 km |
| Maigh Cuilinn | 2,279 | 3 | 542 | 1 | 0% | 8.3 km |
| Clogherhead | 2,275 | 2 | 568 | 0 | 0% | 9.1 km |
| Rathdrum | 2,264 | 4 | 1,116 | 0 | 75% | 0.3 km |
| Rosslare Harbour | 2,247 | 3 | 468 | 0 | 67% | 13 km |
| Ballyshannon | 2,246 | 6 | 1,236 | 1 | 83% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Castlemartyr | 1,603 | 2 | 314 | 0 | 0% | 8 km |
Of the other 100 towns, 78 have more pupils at the schools around them than Maigh Cuilinn. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 30 of the 101.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Maigh Cuilinn
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Maigh Cuilinn had 579 pupils in 2015/16 and 542 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Maigh Cuilinn
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 Maigh Cuilinn
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maigh Cuilinn | 3 | 542 | 1 | 0% | 8.3 km |
| Rahoon 8.7 km | 29 | 10,562 | 5 | 21% | 1.6 km |
| Knocknacarra 8.9 km | 29 | 10,407 | 5 | 17% | 0.9 km |
| Dangan 9.1 km | 30 | 10,789 | 5 | 23% | 1.6 km |
| Bearna 9.4 km | 10 | 4,172 | 4 | 10% | 2.8 km |
| Newcastle 9.7 km | 31 | 11,321 | 5 | 29% | 0.9 km |
| Taylor's Hill 9.9 km | 30 | 10,795 | 4 | 23% | 0.4 km |
Rahoon has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 5. The roll around Maigh Cuilinn moved −5% since 2019/20; nearby, Taylor's Hill grew most (+5%) and Dangan least (+1%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Maigh Cuilinn 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 Maigh Cuilinn
How many schools are there in Maigh Cuilinn?
In Maigh Cuilinn or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools, with 542 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Maigh Cuilinn that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: S.N. Baile Nua teach every subject through Irish.
Is there a secondary school in Maigh Cuilinn?
Not in Maigh Cuilinn or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Coláiste na Coiribe, 8.3 km away.
What is the best school in Maigh Cuilinn?
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 Maigh Cuilinn?
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).