Photo: David Hawgood · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Patrickswell, only 0% of schools teach through Irish, fewer than around Co. Limerick’s towns or Irish towns
That puts Patrickswell below both Co. Limerick’s towns (12%) and Irish towns (8%). Families in Patrickswell have 1 primary school and 1 special school within 3 km, teaching 204 pupils. 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 Patrickswell’s schools
A wide choice at twelve
Families here can choose among 11 post-primary schools within 10 km of the town, of more than one kind; each admits on its own published policy, so applying to more than one is common. The nearest: Mungret Community College (3.8 km), Crescent College Comprehensive (6.3 km) and Colaiste Chiarain (7.7 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Where the 2 schools in and around Patrickswell 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 Patrickswell’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 Patrickswell
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Patrickswell teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Patrickswell’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.
| Share of pupils | Around Patrickswell | Co. Limerick | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 70% | 25% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 7% | 6% |
| Girls | 43% | 48% | 49% |
Around Patrickswell, 70% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 25% in Co. Limerick. The biggest difference from Ireland is in girls: 43% here, 49% there. Of the DEIS schools here, Scoil Tobar Padraig is the biggest: 143 pupils.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil Tobar PadraigPrimary | 143 | 49% | ✓ | |
| Red Hill SchoolSpecial | 61 | 28% |
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 Patrickswell’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
1 of Patrickswell’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Limerick (1) and The Rehab Group (1). 1 of the 2 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.
How children get a place in Patrickswell
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.
The 2 schools in and around Patrickswell
Here are the schools in Patrickswell or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Without school-level results from Ireland, the cards show no letters.
Inspection reports for Patrickswell’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 2 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil Tobar PadraigPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Red Hill SchoolSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Patrickswell
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Families in Patrickswell have 11 post-primary schools within 10 km: 7 voluntary secondary schools, 3 ETB schools and one comprehensive school. 5 teach girls and boys apart: 2 girls’ and 3 boys’ schools. One of them charges fees. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mungret Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 991 | 3.8 km |
| Crescent College ComprehensiveComprehensive · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 922 | 6.3 km |
| Colaiste ChiarainETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 821 | 7.7 km |
| Villiers Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Church of Ireland | Girls and boys | Fee-paying, Boarding | 508 | 7.9 km |
| Laurel Hill Secondary School FCJVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 746 | 7.9 km |
| Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | Gaelcholáiste | 315 | 7.9 km |
| St Clements CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | DEIS | 411 | 8 km |
| Ardscoil RisVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 728 | 8.8 km |
| Colaiste MhichilVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | DEIS | 349 | 9 km |
| Coláiste Nano NagleVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 365 | 9.1 km |
| Thomond Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 597 | 9.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Patrickswell
Red Hill School is the special school here, with 61 pupils. 1 of the 1 primary schools has 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.
Patrickswell beside the 158 other Irish towns of 600 to 1,100 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buttevant | 1,080 | 2 | 802 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballyboghil | 855 | 2 | 563 | 0 | 0% | 5.6 km |
| Scarriff-Tuamgraney | 854 | 4 | 720 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Newtownforbes | 851 | 2 | 606 | 0 | 50% | 5 km |
| Strokestown | 850 | 3 | 851 | 0 | 33% | 0.5 km |
| Patrickswell | 848 | 2 | 204 | 0 | 50% | 3.8 km |
| Gowran | 847 | 1 | 197 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Rhode | 841 | 2 | 215 | 0 | 50% | 9.3 km |
| Kilsheelan | 837 | 1 | 90 | 0 | 0% | 7.9 km |
| Ballyclerahan | 830 | 1 | 202 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Na Dúnaibh | 601 | 2 | 202 | 1 | 100% | 14 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 111 of the other 158 towns than around Patrickswell. 15 of the 159 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Patrickswell
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 Patrickswell had 225 pupils in 2015/16 and 204 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Patrickswell
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 Patrickswell
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrickswell | 2 | 204 | 0 | 50% | 3.8 km |
| Dooradoyle 5.3 km | 42 | 13,180 | 5 | 36% | 1 km |
| Adare 7.1 km | 4 | 446 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| Ballinacurra 7.2 km | 48 | 15,810 | 6 | 46% | 0.8 km |
| Dock 8.3 km | 45 | 15,206 | 5 | 49% | 0.3 km |
| Rathbane 8.4 km | 52 | 19,628 | 7 | 33% | 1.5 km |
| Prospect and Newtown Pery 8.4 km | 46 | 15,489 | 5 | 48% | 0.7 km |
Rathbane has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 7. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Patrickswell changed by −1%; among its neighbours, Rathbane’s grew most (+7%) and Adare’s least (−13%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Patrickswell 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 Patrickswell
How many schools are there in Patrickswell?
In Patrickswell or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 special school, with 204 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Patrickswell that teach through Irish?
None in Patrickswell or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Patrickswell?
Not in Patrickswell or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Mungret Community College, 3.8 km away.
What is the best school in Patrickswell?
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 Patrickswell?
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).