Photo: J. Patrick Fischer · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer single-sex secondaries around Kenmare than around Co. Kerry’s towns or Irish towns: 0%
Measured that way, Kenmare is below both Co. Kerry’s towns (67%) and Irish towns (39%). Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine, with 646 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
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 Kenmare’s schools
One school growing fast
Of the schools here, Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine has grown fastest, from 494 in 2019/20 to 646. Getting a place ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
The 3 schools in and around Kenmare
Every school in Kenmare or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. No school here carries a letter or a result: Ireland publishes neither for individual schools.
Where the 3 schools in and around Kenmare 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 Kenmare’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 Kenmare
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 3 schools in and around Kenmare teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Kenmare’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside 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 Kenmare | Co. Kerry | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 20% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 9% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
0% of the pupils around Kenmare are at a DEIS school, fewer than the 27% across Ireland (20% in Co. Kerry). Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 0% against 6%.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pobalscoil Inbhear ScéinePost-primary · Community school | 646 | 48% | ||
| St Johns NSPrimary | 395 | 47% | ||
| Cahir National SchoolPrimary | 25 | 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.
Who runs Kenmare’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Kenmare’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kerry (2) and Kerry ETB & Sisters of St Clare (1). 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.
The 2 patrons of Kenmare’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
2 patrons run the 3 schools around Kenmare; the largest, Bishop of Kerry, has 2 of them and 39% of the pupils. One is an ETB school.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of KerrySt Johns NS, Cahir | Catholic | 2 | 420 |
| Kerry ETB & Sisters of St ClarePobalscoil Inbhear Scéine | Inter-denominational | 1 | 646 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Kenmare
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 3; 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 Kenmare’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and 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 |
|---|---|
| Pobalscoil Inbhear ScéinePost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Johns NSPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Cahir National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Kenmare
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 Kenmare is Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine, a community school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pobalscoil Inbhear ScéineCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 646 | 0.4 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Kenmare
No special school is in or near Kenmare. 1 of the 2 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.
Kenmare beside the 88 other Irish towns of 1,800 to 3,500 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rahoon | 3,486 | 29 | 10,562 | 5 | 21% | 1.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Kilrush | 2,649 | 3 | 733 | 1 | 100% | 0.4 km |
| Baltinglass | 2,611 | 3 | 912 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Bundoran | 2,599 | 3 | 898 | 0 | 33% | 0.2 km |
| Athboy | 2,596 | 4 | 1,372 | 2 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Kenmare | 2,566 | 3 | 1,066 | 0 | 0% | 0.4 km |
| Kylemore | 2,557 | 57 | 16,207 | 2 | 60% | 0.5 km |
| Castleisland | 2,536 | 7 | 1,283 | 1 | 29% | 0.3 km |
| Grange Upper | 2,510 | 29 | 11,835 | 2 | 41% | 0.8 km |
| Castleconnell | 2,488 | 2 | 536 | 0 | 0% | 5.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Derrinturn | 1,837 | 3 | 426 | 0 | 100% | 8.3 km |
Of the other 88 towns, 55 have more pupils at the schools around them than Kenmare. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 36 of the 89.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Kenmare
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 Kenmare had 985 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,066 in 2025/26. Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine grew most: +31% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Kenmare
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 Kenmare 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 Kenmare
How many schools are there in Kenmare?
In Kenmare or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,066 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Kenmare that teach through Irish?
None in Kenmare 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 Kenmare?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Kenmare?
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 Kenmare?
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).