Photo: john salter · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Kilfinnane take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Limerick’s towns and Irish towns
For Kilfinnane, that is below both Co. Limerick’s towns (54%) and Irish towns (39%). Every one of its 3 schools within 3 km has a Catholic ethos. 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 Kilfinnane’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 Scoil Pól: 509 pupils in 2019/20, 715 now. Getting a place ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Kilfinnane
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 Kilfinnane had 499 pupils in 2015/16 and 908 in 2025/26. Scoil Pól grew most: +40% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Kilfinnane
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 Kilfinnane’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Kilfinnane’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Limerick (2) and Le Chéile Schools Trust (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 3 schools in and around Kilfinnane
Each school in or within 3 km of Kilfinnane links to a page of its own. Without school-level results from Ireland, the cards show no letters.
Where the 3 schools in and around Kilfinnane 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 Kilfinnane’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 Kilfinnane
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Kilfinnane teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Kilfinnane’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Limerick’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 Kilfinnane | Co. Limerick | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 25% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 7% | 6% |
| Girls | 51% | 48% | 49% |
0% of the pupils around Kilfinnane are at a DEIS school, fewer than the 27% across Ireland (25% in Co. Limerick). The biggest difference from Ireland is in pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here, 6% there.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil PólPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 715 | 51% | ||
| Kilfinane Convent Primary SchoolPrimary | 145 | 50% | ||
| Ardpatrick N.S.Primary | 48 | 58% |
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 Kilfinnane’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
2 patrons run the 3 schools around Kilfinnane; the largest, Bishop of Limerick, has 2 of them and 21% of the pupils.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of LimerickKilfinane Convent Primary School, Ardpatrick | Catholic | 2 | 193 |
| Le Chéile Schools TrustScoil Pól | Catholic | 1 | 715 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Kilfinnane
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, 1 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.
Inspection reports for Kilfinnane’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
The Inspectorate inspects schools in several ways: a whole-school evaluation covers teaching, learning and how the school is led; a subject inspection looks at one subject; a follow-through checks on earlier advice. Reports go on gov.ie with the school’s reply.
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 |
|---|---|
| Scoil PólPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Kilfinane Convent Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Ardpatrick 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 Kilfinnane
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
2 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Kilfinnane: one voluntary secondary school and one ETB school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil PólVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 715 | 0.4 km |
| Coláiste IósaefETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 505 | 8.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Kilfinnane
No special school is in or near Kilfinnane. 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.
Kilfinnane beside the 187 other Irish towns of 500 to 1,000 people
Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castletownbere | 999 | 3 | 524 | 0 | 67% | 0.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Rathmore | 766 | 3 | 627 | 0 | 0% | 2.5 km |
| Knockbridge | 759 | 1 | 285 | 0 | 0% | 5.8 km |
| Lixnaw | 758 | 1 | 104 | 0 | 100% | 7.8 km |
| Avoca | 757 | 1 | 172 | 0 | 0% | 6.7 km |
| Kilfinnane | 757 | 3 | 908 | 0 | 0% | 0.4 km |
| Killenaule | 755 | 2 | 495 | 0 | 100% | 0.2 km |
| Keenagh | 753 | 1 | 109 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| Drumod | 753 | 2 | 284 | 0 | 0% | 7.8 km |
| An Bun Beag | 749 | 6 | 913 | 6 | 100% | 3.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Stradbally | 500 | 2 | 134 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
Of the other 187 towns, 25 have more pupils at the schools around them than Kilfinnane. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 16 of the 188.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Kilfinnane
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilfinnane | 3 | 908 | 0 | 0% | 0.4 km |
| Kilmallock 8.8 km | 2 | 786 | 0 | 100% | 0.3 km |
| Charleville 15 km | 6 | 1,334 | 0 | 50% | 0.3 km |
| Mitchelstown 17 km | 5 | 1,646 | 0 | 40% | 0.4 km |
Pupils around Kilfinnane: +27% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Kilmallock led (+13%) and Charleville trailed (+7%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Kilfinnane 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 Kilfinnane
How many schools are there in Kilfinnane?
In Kilfinnane or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 908 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Kilfinnane that teach through Irish?
None in Kilfinnane 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 Kilfinnane?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Kilfinnane?
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 Kilfinnane?
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).