Photo: Nathanfigueredo · CC BY-SA 4.0Most post-primaries around Causeway take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Kerry’s towns and Irish towns
Measured that way, Causeway is below both Co. Kerry’s towns (67%) and Irish towns (39%). Causeway Comprehensive School, with 646 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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 Causeway’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 Causeway Comprehensive School: 480 pupils in 2019/20, 646 now. Getting a place ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Causeway
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 Causeway had 669 pupils in 2015/16 and 771 in 2025/26. Causeway Comprehensive School grew most: +35% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Causeway
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.
The 4 schools in and around Causeway
Each school in or within 3 km of Causeway links to a page of its own. Ireland doesn’t publish results for individual schools, so none of these carries a letter.
Where the 4 schools in and around Causeway 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 Causeway’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 Causeway
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 4 schools in and around Causeway teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Causeway’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Kerry’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 Causeway | Co. Kerry | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 84% | 20% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 9% | 6% |
| Girls | 51% | 49% | 49% |
84% of the pupils around Causeway are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (20% in Co. Kerry). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%. The biggest school in DEIS is Causeway Comprehensive School (646 pupils).
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Causeway Comprehensive SchoolPost-primary · ETB | 646 | 52% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Cill LúraighPrimary | 93 | 48% | ||
| S.N. Bhaile an ChrosaighPrimary | 18 | 50% | ||
| Scoil Chriost RiPrimary | 14 | 43% |
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 Causeway’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Causeway’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kerry (3) and Kerry ETB (1). 1 of the 4 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 2 patrons of Causeway’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
The schools around Causeway answer to 2 patrons, and Bishop of Kerry leads with 3 of the 4 schools and 16% of their pupils. An Education and Training Board runs one of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of KerryS.N. Cill Lúraigh, S.N. Bhaile an Chrosaigh, Scoil Chriost Ri | Catholic | 3 | 125 |
| Kerry ETBCauseway Comprehensive School | Inter-denominational | 1 | 646 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Causeway
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
2 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 2 have shrunk by as much, out of 4; 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 Causeway’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
Each school is visited by inspectors from time to time, for a whole-school evaluation of teaching, learning and leadership, for one subject, or to follow up earlier advice, and every report is posted 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 4 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Causeway Comprehensive SchoolPost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Cill LúraighPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Bhaile an ChrosaighPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Chriost RiPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Causeway
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Causeway is Causeway Comprehensive School, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Causeway Comprehensive SchoolETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 646 | 0.3 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Causeway beside the 128 other Irish towns of 200 to 300 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Dunhill | 223 | 2 | 259 | 0 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| Ballinameen | 223 | 1 | 47 | 0 | 0% | 8.1 km |
| Swanlinbar | 222 | 1 | 57 | 0 | 100% | 8 km |
| Dundrum | 221 | 1 | 147 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Causeway | 220 | 4 | 771 | 0 | 25% | 0.3 km |
| Ballycastle | 220 | 1 | 67 | 0 | 100% | 7.5 km |
| Ballynacarrow | 220 | 1 | 66 | 0 | 0% | 5.4 km |
| Rosegreen | 219 | 1 | 152 | 0 | 0% | 4.3 km |
| Crossakeel | 218 | 2 | 145 | 0 | 0% | 8.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lahardane | 200 | 1 | 76 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
Among the 128 other towns, 4 have more pupils at their schools than Causeway does. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 7 of the 129.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Causeway
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Causeway | 4 | 771 | 0 | 25% | 0.3 km |
| Ballybunion 12 km | 3 | 586 | 0 | 33% | 0.5 km |
| Tralee 16 km | 18 | 6,726 | 2 | 39% | 0.6 km |
| Listowel 17 km | 8 | 1,547 | 1 | 50% | 0.4 km |
Tralee has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. The roll around Causeway moved +25% since 2019/20; nearby, Listowel grew most (+15%) and Tralee least (+5%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Causeway 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 Causeway
How many schools are there in Causeway?
In Causeway or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 771 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Causeway that teach through Irish?
None in Causeway 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 Causeway?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Causeway?
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 Causeway?
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).