Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0Few schools around Ballybay teach through Irish: 0%, below Co. Monaghan’s towns and Irish towns
On this, Ballybay is below both Co. Monaghan’s towns (17%) and Irish towns (8%). Ballybay Community College, with 344 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results 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.
What stands out about Ballybay’s schools
Extra support for many schools
Many schools here are in DEIS, which gives schools in disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and help; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. In DEIS: Scoil Éanna (228) and Ballybay Central N.S. (66). Who runs them ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Ballybay’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Ballybay’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Clogher (2), Cavan & Monaghan ETB (1) and Presbytery of Monaghan (1). 2 of the 4 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 schools in and around Ballybay
Here are the schools in Ballybay or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. These schools carry no letter or result: Ireland doesn’t release them school by school.
Where the 4 schools in and around Ballybay 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 Ballybay’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 Ballybay
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 4 schools in and around Ballybay teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Ballybay’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Monaghan’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 Ballybay | Co. Monaghan | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 38% | 33% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 9% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 48% | 49% |
38% of the pupils around Ballybay are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (33% in Co. Monaghan). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is Scoil Éanna, with 228 pupils.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballybay Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 344 | 49% | ||
| Scoil ÉannaPrimary | 228 | 53% | ✓ | |
| Ballybay Central N.S.Primary | 66 | 45% | ✓ | |
| Doohamlet N.S.Primary | 134 | 40% |
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 Ballybay’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
The schools around Ballybay answer to 3 patrons, and Bishop of Clogher leads with 2 of the 4 schools and 47% of their pupils. One is an ETB school.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of ClogherScoil Éanna, Doohamlet | Catholic | 2 | 362 |
| Cavan & Monaghan ETBBallybay | Multi-denominational | 1 | 344 |
| Presbytery of MonaghanBallybay Central | Presbyterian | 1 | 66 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ballybay
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 4 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 Ballybay’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 4 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Ballybay Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil ÉannaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Ballybay Central N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Doohamlet 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 Ballybay
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Ballybay is Ballybay Community College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballybay Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 344 | 0.3 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Ballybay
No special school is in or near Ballybay. 1 of the 3 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.
Ballybay beside the 135 other Irish towns of 900 to 1,800 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collooney | 1,797 | 3 | 580 | 0 | 33% | 3.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballinroad | 1,389 | 7 | 2,813 | 1 | 14% | 1.1 km |
| Rathdowney | 1,368 | 2 | 627 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
| Castlepollard | 1,349 | 3 | 512 | 0 | 67% | 1 km |
| Lismore | 1,347 | 3 | 1,250 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Ballybay | 1,329 | 4 | 772 | 0 | 50% | 0.4 km |
| Ferbane | 1,324 | 2 | 630 | 0 | 50% | 0.3 km |
| Johnstown | 1,320 | 13 | 7,322 | 1 | 0% | 3.3 km |
| Ferns | 1,317 | 2 | 324 | 0 | 50% | 10 km |
| Cahirciveen | 1,297 | 2 | 691 | 0 | 50% | 1.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Clarinbridge | 905 | 2 | 451 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
Among the 135 other towns, 52 have more pupils at their schools than Ballybay does. Within 3 km, 14 of these 136 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ballybay
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Ballybay had 696 pupils in 2015/16 and 772 in 2025/26. Ballybay Central N.S. grew most: +27% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballybay
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 Ballybay
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballybay | 4 | 772 | 0 | 50% | 0.4 km |
| Castleblayney 10 km | 9 | 2,076 | 1 | 44% | 0.5 km |
| Cootehill 13 km | 4 | 1,198 | 0 | 25% | 1.3 km |
| Monaghan 14 km | 11 | 3,968 | 2 | 36% | 0.2 km |
Monaghan has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Ballybay changed by +2%; among its neighbours, Castleblayney’s grew most (+25%) and Monaghan’s least (+8%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballybay 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 Ballybay
How many schools are there in Ballybay?
In Ballybay or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 772 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballybay that teach through Irish?
None in Ballybay 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 Ballybay?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Ballybay?
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 Ballybay?
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).