Photo: Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0Irish-medium schools are unusually common around Mountrath: 14%, above Co. Laois’ towns and Irish towns
That puts Mountrath above both Co. Laois’ towns (0%) and Irish towns (8%). Mountrath Community School, with 789 pupils, is the only secondary school 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.
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.
The 7 schools in and around Mountrath
Every school in Mountrath or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Results by school aren’t published in Ireland, so the cards carry none.
Where the 7 schools in and around Mountrath 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 Mountrath’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 Mountrath
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
1 of Mountrath’s 7 schools teach every subject through Irish: Trummera N.S..
Who Mountrath’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside Co. Laois’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 Mountrath | Co. Laois | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 16% | 22% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 3% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
Around Mountrath, 16% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 22% in Co. Laois. St Fintans N.S., with 108 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 7 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountrath Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | 789 | 48% | ||
| St Fintans N.S.Primary | 108 | 0% | ✓ | |
| Scoil BhridePrimary | 95 | 100% | ✓ | |
| Cluain Eidhneach N.S.Primary | 89 | 52% | ||
| Castletown N.S.Primary | 111 | 56% | ||
| Paddock N.S.Primary | 80 | 58% | ||
| Trummera N.S.Primary | 34 | 41% | ✓ |
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 Mountrath’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
5 of Mountrath’s 7 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (3), Bishop of Ossory (2) and Laois & Offaly ETB & Patrician Brothers (1). 2 of the 7 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 4 patrons of Mountrath’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
4 patrons run the 7 schools around Mountrath; the largest, Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin, has 3 of them and 18% of the pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of Kildare & LeighlinSt Fintans, Scoil Bhride, Trummera | Catholic | 3 | 237 |
| Bishop of OssoryCastletown, Paddock | Catholic | 2 | 191 |
| Laois & Offaly ETB & Patrician BrothersMountrath | Inter-denominational | 1 | 789 |
| Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory COICluain Eidhneach | Church of Ireland | 1 | 89 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Mountrath
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 7 schools, 4 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 2 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.
Inspection reports for Mountrath’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 7 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Mountrath Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Fintans N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil BhridePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Cluain Eidhneach N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Castletown N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Paddock N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Trummera 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 Mountrath
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 Mountrath is Mountrath Community School, a community school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountrath Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 789 | 0.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Mountrath
No special school is in or near Mountrath. 3 of the 6 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.
Mountrath beside the 97 other Irish towns of 1,400 to 2,800 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blarney | 2,779 | 5 | 2,101 | 1 | 20% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Edgeworthstown | 2,199 | 3 | 423 | 0 | 33% | 11 km |
| Newport | 2,183 | 4 | 1,527 | 0 | 25% | 0.4 km |
| Killorglin | 2,163 | 4 | 1,406 | 0 | 50% | 0.4 km |
| Dunleer | 2,143 | 5 | 1,205 | 0 | 20% | 0.8 km |
| Mountrath | 2,070 | 7 | 1,306 | 1 | 29% | 0.8 km |
| Bunclody | 2,053 | 5 | 1,912 | 0 | 40% | 0.5 km |
| Templemore | 2,005 | 5 | 973 | 0 | 60% | 0.3 km |
| Enniskerry | 2,000 | 10 | 2,487 | 0 | 20% | 2.9 km |
| Termonfeckin | 1,983 | 2 | 508 | 0 | 0% | 5.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Stradbally | 1,404 | 2 | 375 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
Of the other 97 towns, 20 have more pupils at the schools around them than Mountrath. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 20 of the 98.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Mountrath
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 Mountrath had 1,305 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,306 in 2025/26. Cluain Eidhneach N.S. grew most: +22% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Mountrath
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 Mountrath
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountrath | 7 | 1,306 | 1 | 29% | 0.8 km |
| Portlaoise 13 km | 13 | 6,518 | 1 | 15% | 0.6 km |
| Abbeyleix 13 km | 2 | 353 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| Mountmellick 16 km | 5 | 1,405 | 0 | 80% | 0.3 km |
| Rathdowney 18 km | 2 | 627 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
Of Mountrath’s neighbours, Rathdowney saw the most growth in pupils since 2019/20 (+21%) and Abbeyleix the least (−16%); Mountrath itself: +6%.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Mountrath 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 Mountrath
How many schools are there in Mountrath?
In Mountrath or within 3 km of it: 6 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,306 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Mountrath that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Trummera N.S. teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Mountrath?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Mountrath?
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 Mountrath?
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).