Photo: Christopher Hilton · CC BY-SA 2.0DEIS support is less common around Banagher: 0% of schools, below Co. Offaly’s towns and Irish towns
Set beside other towns, Banagher comes out below both Co. Offaly’s towns (71%) and Irish towns (35%). Banagher College, with 556 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not 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.
The 3 schools in and around Banagher
Here are the schools in Banagher or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Letters and results are missing here for a reason: Ireland publishes neither school by school.
Where the 3 schools in and around Banagher 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 Banagher’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 Banagher
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Banagher teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Banagher’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Offaly’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 Banagher | Co. Offaly | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 42% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 0% of the pupils around Banagher, a smaller share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Offaly: 42%). The biggest difference from Ireland is in pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here, 6% there.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banagher CollegePost-primary · ETB | 556 | 52% | ||
| St Rynaghs N.S.Primary | 249 | 44% | ||
| St Cronans Mixed N.S.Primary | 72 | 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.
Who runs Banagher’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Banagher’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Laois & Offaly ETB (1), Bishop of Ardagh & Clonmacnoise (1) and Bishop of Clonfert (1). None of the 3 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.
The 3 patrons of Banagher’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
3 patrons run the 3 schools around Banagher; the largest, Laois & Offaly ETB, has 1 of them and 63% of the pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laois & Offaly ETBBanagher College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 556 |
| Bishop of Ardagh & ClonmacnoiseSt Rynaghs | Catholic | 1 | 249 |
| Bishop of ClonfertSt Cronans Mixed | Catholic | 1 | 72 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Banagher
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, 1 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 Banagher’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
Reports come from whole-school evaluations (teaching, learning, leadership and management), subject inspections and follow-through visits that check earlier advice; gov.ie publishes each one with the school’s response.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 3 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Banagher CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Rynaghs N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Cronans Mixed 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 Banagher
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 Banagher is Banagher College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banagher CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 556 | 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 Banagher
No special school is in or near Banagher. 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.
Banagher beside the 96 other Irish towns of 1,300 to 2,600 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundoran | 2,599 | 3 | 898 | 0 | 33% | 0.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Strandhill | 1,982 | 1 | 252 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| Cloyne | 1,967 | 2 | 653 | 0 | 0% | 5.8 km |
| Dunmanway | 1,964 | 5 | 1,019 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Rathcormac | 1,957 | 3 | 715 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 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 |
| … | ||||||
| Ferns | 1,317 | 2 | 324 | 0 | 50% | 10 km |
Of the other 96 towns, 36 have more pupils at the schools around them than Banagher. 17 of the 97 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Banagher
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 Banagher had 879 pupils in 2015/16 and 877 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Banagher
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 Banagher
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
Birr has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. The roll around Banagher moved −3% since 2019/20; nearby, Kilcormac grew most (+24%) and Birr least (+4%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Banagher 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 Banagher
How many schools are there in Banagher?
In Banagher or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 877 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Banagher that teach through Irish?
None in Banagher 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 Banagher?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Banagher?
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 Banagher?
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).