Photo: Sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.02 of the 4 schools around Athboy teach through Irish
All-Irish schools make up 50% of those around Athboy, above both Co. Meath’s towns (7%) and Irish towns (8%). 2 of its 4 schools are multi- or inter-denominational, against 14% across Ireland. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
Counted from the Department of Education’s 2025/26 lists: every school in the town or within 3 km of it, against every school in Ireland.
What stands out about Athboy’s schools
Mostly taught through Irish
Most schools here are in the Gaeltacht and teach through Irish; across Ireland, 8% of schools teach only through it. They are Scoil Uí Ghramhnaigh (169) and Coláiste Pobail Rath Cairn (140). Language ↓
A choice beyond the church schools
Most schools in Ireland have a church patron; here more of them are multi- or inter-denominational than in most places (14% across Ireland). They are Athboy Community School (681) and Coláiste Pobail Rath Cairn (140). Who runs them ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Teaching through Irish in and around Athboy
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
2 of Athboy’s 4 schools teach every subject through Irish, 2 of them in the Gaeltacht: Coláiste Pobail Rath Cairn and Scoil Uí Ghramhnaigh.
Who runs Athboy’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Athboy’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Meath (2), Louth & Meath ETB & Bishop of Meath (1) and Louth & Meath ETB (1). None of the 4 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 4 schools in and around Athboy 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 Athboy’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.
Who Athboy’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Meath’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 Athboy | Co. Meath | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 14% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 23% | 5% | 6% |
| Girls | 46% | 49% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 0% | 22% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
Fewer of the pupils around Athboy are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 0% against 27% (Co. Meath: 14%). The biggest difference from Ireland is in post-primary pupils at single-sex schools: 0% here, 29% there.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athboy Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | 681 | 44% | ||
| O'Growney National SchoolPrimary | 382 | 49% | ||
| Coláiste Pobail Rath CairnPost-primary · ETB | 140 | 55% | ✓ | |
| Scoil Uí GhramhnaighPrimary | 169 | 43% | ✓ |
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 3 patrons of Athboy’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
The schools around Athboy answer to 3 patrons, and Bishop of Meath leads with 2 of the 4 schools and 40% of their pupils. 2 are ETB schools.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of MeathO'Growney, Scoil Uí Ghramhnaigh | Catholic | 2 | 551 |
| Louth & Meath ETB & Bishop of MeathAthboy | Inter-denominational | 1 | 681 |
| Louth & Meath ETBColáiste Pobail Rath Cairn | Multi-denominational | 1 | 140 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Athboy
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
3 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 1 have shrunk by as much, out of 4; 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.
The 4 schools in and around Athboy
Each school in or within 3 km of Athboy links to a page of its own. No school here carries a letter or a result: Ireland publishes neither for individual schools.
Inspection reports for Athboy’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, 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 4 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Athboy Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
| O'Growney National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Coláiste Pobail Rath CairnPost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Uí GhramhnaighPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Athboy
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Within 10 km of Athboy there are 2 post-primary schools: one community school and one ETB school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athboy Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 681 | 0.8 km |
| Coláiste Pobail Rath CairnETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaeltacht school | 140 | 4.1 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Athboy beside the 88 other Irish towns of 1,800 to 3,500 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rahoon | 3,486 | 29 | 10,562 | 5 | 21% | 1.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Callan | 2,678 | 2 | 1,112 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 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 |
| … | ||||||
| Derrinturn | 1,837 | 3 | 426 | 0 | 100% | 8.3 km |
Among the 88 other towns, 37 have more pupils at their schools than Athboy does. 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 Athboy
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 Athboy had 1,305 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,372 in 2025/26. Athboy Community School grew most: +16% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Athboy
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 Athboy
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
Since 2019/20 the pupils around Athboy changed by +7%; among its neighbours, Longwood’s grew most (+7%) and Ballivor’s least (−37%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Athboy 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 Athboy
How many schools are there in Athboy?
In Athboy or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 2 secondary schools, with 1,372 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Athboy that teach through Irish?
Yes, 2: Coláiste Pobail Rath Cairn and Scoil Uí Ghramhnaigh teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Athboy?
No: all 2 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Athboy?
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 Athboy?
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).