Photo: Original author and uploader was Sarah777 at en.wikipedia · Public domainPupil numbers around Claremorris have fallen behind Co. Mayo’s towns and Irish towns: −6% since 2019/20
That puts Claremorris below both Co. Mayo’s towns (+10%) and Irish towns (+4%). Every one of its 3 schools within 3 km has a Catholic ethos. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
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 Claremorris’s schools
Single-sex secondary schools
Every secondary school here takes only boys or only girls, so a family with a son and a daughter will use two schools. Single-sex: Mount St Michael (404) and Coláiste Cholmáin (402). Every school ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
The 3 schools in and around Claremorris
Here are the schools in Claremorris or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Who runs Claremorris’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
3 of Claremorris’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Tuam (2) and CEIST (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.
Where the 3 schools in and around Claremorris 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 Claremorris’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 Claremorris
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Claremorris teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Claremorris’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside Co. Mayo’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 Claremorris | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 37% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 5% | 6% |
| Girls | 51% | 48% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 100% | 26% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
DEIS schools teach 0% of the pupils around Claremorris, a smaller share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Mayo: 37%). Where this area differs most from Ireland is post-primary pupils at single-sex schools, at 100% against 29%.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount St MichaelPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 404 | 100% | ||
| Claremorris National SchoolPrimary | 314 | 52% | ||
| Coláiste CholmáinPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 402 | 0% |
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 Claremorris’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 Claremorris; the largest, Archbishop of Tuam, has 2 of them and 64% of the pupils.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of TuamColáiste Cholmáin, Claremorris | Catholic | 2 | 716 |
| CEISTMount St Michael | Catholic | 1 | 404 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Claremorris
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
Between 2019/20 and now, 1 of the 2 grew by 5% or more and 0 shrank as much, while Ireland’s pupil numbers moved +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 Claremorris’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
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 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Mount St MichaelPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Claremorris National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Coláiste CholmáinPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Claremorris
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Within 10 km of Claremorris there are 2 post-primary schools: 2 voluntary secondary schools. 2 teach girls and boys apart: 1 girls’ and 1 boys’ schools. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount St MichaelVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 404 | 0.7 km |
| Coláiste CholmáinVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 402 | 1.7 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Claremorris
No special school is in or near Claremorris. 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.
Claremorris beside the 92 other Irish towns of 2,700 to 5,200 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tullow | 5,138 | 4 | 1,339 | 0 | 75% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Macroom | 4,096 | 6 | 1,897 | 0 | 17% | 0.1 km |
| Newcastle | 4,032 | 31 | 11,321 | 5 | 29% | 0.9 km |
| Charleville | 3,970 | 6 | 1,334 | 0 | 50% | 0.3 km |
| Castleblayney | 3,926 | 9 | 2,076 | 1 | 44% | 0.5 km |
| Claremorris | 3,857 | 3 | 1,120 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Farranree | 3,824 | 57 | 16,957 | 5 | 56% | 0.4 km |
| Kill | 3,818 | 2 | 774 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
| Kilcullen | 3,815 | 3 | 1,524 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Shanakiel | 3,804 | 52 | 16,547 | 5 | 54% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Decies | 2,713 | 44 | 11,294 | 1 | 64% | 0.8 km |
Of the other 92 towns, 81 have more pupils at the schools around them than Claremorris. Within 3 km, 60 of these 93 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Claremorris
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Claremorris had 1,265 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,120 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Claremorris
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 Claremorris
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claremorris | 3 | 1,120 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Knock 9.5 km | 1 | 152 | 0 | 100% | 7.8 km |
| Kiltimagh 14 km | 2 | 963 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| Ballyhaunis 16 km | 2 | 1,102 | 0 | 100% | 0.7 km |
| Ballinrobe 19 km | 3 | 1,391 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
Pupils around Claremorris: −6% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Kiltimagh led (+17%) and Knock trailed (+4%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Claremorris 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 Claremorris
How many schools are there in Claremorris?
In Claremorris or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 2 secondary schools, with 1,120 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Claremorris that teach through Irish?
None in Claremorris 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 Claremorris?
No: all 2 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Claremorris?
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 Claremorris?
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).