Photo: C Michael Hogan · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Clones, 33% of schools teach every subject through Irish, more than around Co. Monaghan’s towns or Irish towns
In the comparison, Clones comes above both Co. Monaghan’s towns (17%) and Irish towns (8%). One of its 3 schools teaches every subject through Irish, against 8% of schools across Ireland. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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 Clones’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: Largy College (505), St Tiarnach's Primary School (217) and Gaelscoil Éois (126). Who runs them ↓
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 Gaelscoil Éois (126). Language ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Who runs Clones’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Clones’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Cavan & Monaghan ETB (1), Bishop of Clogher (1) and An Foras Pátrúnachta (1). 3 of the 3 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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Clones
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
1 of Clones’s 3 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil Éois.
The 3 schools in and around Clones
Each school in or within 3 km of Clones links to a page of its own. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Where the 3 schools in and around Clones 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 Clones’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 Clones’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 Clones | Co. Monaghan | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 100% | 33% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 15% | 9% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 48% | 49% |
Around Clones, 100% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 33% in Co. Monaghan. Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 15% against 6%. Largy College, with 505 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largy CollegePost-primary · ETB | 505 | 50% | ✓ | |
| St Tiarnach's Primary SchoolPrimary | 217 | 41% | ✓ | |
| Gaelscoil ÉoisPrimary | 126 | 52% | ✓ | ✓ |
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 Clones’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Cavan & Monaghan ETB is patron of 1 of the 3 schools around Clones, which teach 60% of their pupils; 3 patrons run them in all. One is an ETB school.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cavan & Monaghan ETBLargy College | Inter-denominational | 1 | 505 |
| Bishop of ClogherSt Tiarnach's Primary School | Catholic | 1 | 217 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaGaelscoil Éois | Catholic | 1 | 126 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Clones
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
Since 2019/20, 2 of these 3 schools have grown by 5% or more and 1 have shrunk as much; across Ireland the number of 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 Clones’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 |
|---|---|
| Largy CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Tiarnach's Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Gaelscoil ÉoisPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Clones
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Clones is Largy College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largy CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 505 | 0.5 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Clones
No special school is in or near Clones. 1 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.
Clones beside the 90 other Irish towns of 1,300 to 2,500 people
Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castleconnell | 2,488 | 2 | 536 | 0 | 0% | 5.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Banagher | 1,907 | 3 | 877 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Abbeyleix | 1,897 | 2 | 353 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| Ashford | 1,892 | 4 | 1,116 | 1 | 25% | 4.5 km |
| Newmarket-On-Fergus | 1,887 | 2 | 272 | 0 | 0% | 6.4 km |
| Clones | 1,885 | 3 | 848 | 1 | 100% | 0.5 km |
| Portlaw | 1,881 | 1 | 214 | 0 | 100% | 4.7 km |
| Ballivor | 1,870 | 2 | 248 | 0 | 100% | 9.7 km |
| Cootehill | 1,856 | 4 | 1,198 | 0 | 25% | 1.3 km |
| Castlebridge | 1,850 | 3 | 459 | 0 | 0% | 5.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ferns | 1,317 | 2 | 324 | 0 | 50% | 10 km |
Of these 90 other towns, 32 count more pupils at their schools than Clones. 13 of the 91 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Clones
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 Clones had 729 pupils in 2015/16 and 848 in 2025/26. Largy College grew most: +23% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Clones
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 Clones
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
Monaghan has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. The roll around Clones moved +8% since 2019/20; nearby, Belturbet grew most (+22%) and Monaghan least (+8%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Clones 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 Clones
How many schools are there in Clones?
In Clones or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 848 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Clones that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Gaelscoil Éois teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Clones?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Clones?
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 Clones?
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).