Photo: Terry Stewart · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Bellanode, only 0% of schools teach through Irish, fewer than around Co. Monaghan’s towns or Irish towns
Measured that way, Bellanode is below both Co. Monaghan’s towns (17%) and Irish towns (8%). Every one of its 2 schools within 3 km has a Catholic ethos. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never 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 Bellanode’s schools
A wide choice at twelve
Within 10 km of the town there are 5 post-primary schools to choose from, of different kinds; each sets its own admission policy, and many families apply to several. The nearest: St. Louis Secondary School (4.8 km), Beech Hill College (5.4 km) and St. Macartan's College (5.6 km). Post-primary choices ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Where the 2 schools in and around Bellanode 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 Bellanode’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 runs Bellanode’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Bellanode’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Clogher (2). None of the 2 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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Bellanode
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Bellanode teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Bellanode’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Monaghan’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Bellanode | Co. Monaghan | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 33% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 9% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 48% | 49% |
Fewer of the pupils around Bellanode are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 0% against 27% (Co. Monaghan: 33%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urbleshanny N.S.Primary | 296 | 49% | ||
| St Dympnas N.S.Primary | 124 | 51% |
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.
How children get a place in Bellanode
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
1 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 0 have shrunk by as much, out of 2; 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 2 schools in and around Bellanode
Every school in Bellanode or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Inspection reports for Bellanode’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, 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 |
|---|---|
| Urbleshanny N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Dympnas 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 Bellanode
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
5 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Bellanode: 3 voluntary secondary schools and 2 ETB schools. 2 of them are single-sex, 1 for girls and 1 for boys. One of them charges fees. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 532 | 4.8 km |
| Beech Hill CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 897 | 5.4 km |
| St. Macartan's CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 617 | 5.6 km |
| Coláiste OiriallETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaelcholáiste | 402 | 5.9 km |
| Monaghan Collegiate SchoolVoluntary secondary · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | Fee-paying | 234 | 7 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Bellanode
No special school is in or near Bellanode. 2 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.
Bellanode beside the 217 other Irish towns of 300 to 600 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshford | 593 | 2 | 244 | 0 | 50% | 10 km |
| … | ||||||
| Kildysart | 436 | 2 | 411 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| Scotstown | 436 | 1 | 296 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| Ballybrittas | 435 | 2 | 568 | 0 | 0% | 6.2 km |
| Newtown | 433 | 1 | 144 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
| Bellanode | 433 | 2 | 420 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
| Rann Na Feirste | 431 | 5 | 387 | 5 | 100% | 7.1 km |
| Kilkelly | 429 | 1 | 57 | 0 | 100% | 10 km |
| Castlelyons | 428 | 2 | 626 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
| Glenbeigh | 426 | 2 | 144 | 0 | 100% | 11 km |
| … | ||||||
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
Of the other 217 towns, 46 have more pupils at the schools around them than Bellanode. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 19 of the 218.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Bellanode
Pupils every September at the schools in or within 3 km of the town, each counted at today’s site.
The schools in and around Bellanode had 377 pupils in 2015/16 and 420 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Bellanode
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 Bellanode
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
Monaghan has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Bellanode changed by +12%; among its neighbours, Monaghan’s grew most (+8%) and Ballybay’s least (+2%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Bellanode 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 Bellanode
How many schools are there in Bellanode?
In Bellanode or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools, with 420 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Bellanode that teach through Irish?
None in Bellanode or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Bellanode?
Not in Bellanode or within 3 km of it; the nearest is St. Louis Secondary School, 4.8 km away.
What is the best school in Bellanode?
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 Bellanode?
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).