Photo: James Emmans · CC BY-SA 2.0Carrickmacross has a school teaching entirely through Irish, one of 6 nearby
Teaching through Irish: 17% of the schools around Carrickmacross, above Irish towns (8%). 2 of its 3 secondary schools take only boys or only girls. 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 Carrickmacross’s schools
More all-Irish schools than most places
Families here have more choice of a school that teaches every subject through Irish than in most of Ireland, where 8% of schools do. The school is Scoil Rois (260). Language ↓
Mostly single-sex at secondary
Most secondary schools here take only boys or only girls; the mixed ones are marked on the cards below. Single-sex: Patrician High School (453) and St Louis Secondary School (414). Every school ↓
One school growing fast
Inver College has grown from 371 pupils in 2019/20 to 733, the fastest of the schools here. Getting a place ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Teaching through Irish in and around Carrickmacross
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
1 of Carrickmacross’s 6 schools teach every subject through Irish: Scoil Rois.
The 6 schools in and around Carrickmacross
Here are the schools in Carrickmacross 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.
Where the 6 schools in and around Carrickmacross 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 Carrickmacross’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 Carrickmacross’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside 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 Carrickmacross | Co. Monaghan | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 31% | 33% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 11% | 9% | 6% |
| Girls | 50% | 48% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 54% | 31% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 4% | 6% |
Around Carrickmacross, 31% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 33% in Co. Monaghan. The biggest difference from Ireland is in post-primary pupils at single-sex schools: 54% here, 29% there. Of the DEIS schools here, Inver College is the biggest: 733 pupils.
Each of the 6 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inver CollegePost-primary · ETB | 733 | 50% | ✓ | |
| Patrician High SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 453 | 0% | ||
| St Louis Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 414 | 100% | ||
| Scoil RoisPrimary | 260 | 50% | ✓ | |
| Bunscoil Louis NaofaPrimary | 258 | 100% | ||
| St Joseph's National SchoolPrimary | 234 | 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.
Who runs Carrickmacross’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
5 of Carrickmacross’s 6 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Clogher (4), Cavan & Monaghan ETB (1) and Le Chéile Schools Trust (1). 1 of the 6 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 3 patrons of Carrickmacross’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
Of the 6 schools around Carrickmacross, 4 have Bishop of Clogher as patron, teaching 51% of the pupils; 3 patrons in all. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of ClogherPatrician High School, Scoil Rois, Bunscoil Louis Naofa, St Joseph's | Catholic | 4 | 1,205 |
| Cavan & Monaghan ETBInver College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 733 |
| Le Chéile Schools TrustSt Louis | Catholic | 1 | 414 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Carrickmacross
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
Of these 6 schools, 2 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 3 have lost as much; Ireland’s pupils changed by +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 Carrickmacross’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 6 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Inver CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Patrician High SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Louis Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil RoisPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Bunscoil Louis NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Joseph's National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Carrickmacross
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
4 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Carrickmacross: 2 voluntary secondary schools and 2 ETB schools. 2 of them are single-sex, 1 for girls and 1 for boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Louis Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 414 | 0.2 km |
| Patrician High SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 453 | 1 km |
| Inver CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 733 | 1.1 km |
| Coláiste Dún an RíETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 663 | 9.2 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Carrickmacross beside the 97 other Irish towns of 4,000 to 7,800 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frankfield and Grange | 7,687 | 58 | 20,798 | 6 | 24% | 2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Harmonstown | 5,769 | 84 | 25,004 | 5 | 39% | 0.4 km |
| Rathgar | 5,768 | 105 | 34,594 | 8 | 21% | 0.3 km |
| Ferrybank | 5,766 | 32 | 12,081 | 2 | 38% | 0.6 km |
| Carrick-on-Suir | 5,752 | 8 | 2,088 | 1 | 63% | 0.6 km |
| Carrickmacross | 5,745 | 6 | 2,352 | 1 | 17% | 0.2 km |
| Portobello | 5,732 | 110 | 29,104 | 7 | 46% | 0.4 km |
| Blessington | 5,611 | 6 | 1,711 | 1 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Knocknaheeny | 5,592 | 59 | 18,265 | 5 | 59% | 0.5 km |
| Carrigtwohill | 5,568 | 6 | 2,782 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Newcastle | 4,032 | 31 | 11,321 | 5 | 29% | 0.9 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 77 of the other 97 towns than around Carrickmacross. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 84 of the 98.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Carrickmacross
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Carrickmacross had 2,283 pupils in 2015/16 and 2,352 in 2025/26. Inver College grew most: +98% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Carrickmacross
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 Carrickmacross
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrickmacross | 6 | 2,352 | 1 | 17% | 0.2 km |
| Kingscourt 10 km | 5 | 1,252 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Castleblayney 16 km | 9 | 2,076 | 1 | 44% | 0.5 km |
| Ardee 18 km | 5 | 2,252 | 0 | 60% | 0.8 km |
| Bailieborough 18 km | 5 | 1,420 | 0 | 20% | 0.1 km |
The roll around Carrickmacross moved +8% since 2019/20; nearby, Castleblayney grew most (+25%) and Bailieborough least (+4%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Carrickmacross 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 Carrickmacross
How many schools are there in Carrickmacross?
In Carrickmacross or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 3 secondary schools, with 2,352 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Carrickmacross that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Scoil Rois teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Carrickmacross?
No: all 3 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Carrickmacross?
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 Carrickmacross?
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).