6 of the 7 schools around Crinkill get extra support for disadvantaged areas
Around Crinkill, 86% of schools are in DEIS, above both Co. Offaly’s towns (71%) and Irish towns (35%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, St.Brendan's Community School, has 875 pupils. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Counted from the Department of Education’s 2025/26 lists: every school in the town or within 3 km of it, against every school in Ireland.
What stands out about Crinkill’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: St.Brendan's Community School (875), Croinchoill N.S. (243), St Brendans Monastery (178) and Mercy Primary School (141), and 2 more. Who runs them ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Crinkill’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
4 of Crinkill’s 7 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Killaloe (4), Bishop of Limerick, Killaloe & Ardfert COI (1) and An Foras Pátrúnachta (1). 6 of the 7 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 7 schools in and around Crinkill
Every school in Crinkill or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Letters and results are missing here for a reason: Ireland publishes neither school by school.
Where the 7 schools in and around Crinkill 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 Crinkill’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 Crinkill
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
1 of Crinkill’s 7 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil na Laochra.
Who Crinkill’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside 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 Crinkill | Co. Offaly | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 97% | 42% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 3% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 50% | 49% | 49% |
Around Crinkill, 97% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 42% in Co. Offaly. The biggest school in DEIS is St.Brendan's Community School (875 pupils).
Each of the 7 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croinchoill N.S.Primary | 243 | 53% | ✓ | |
| St Brendans MonasteryPrimary | 178 | 0% | ✓ | |
| Mercy Primary SchoolPrimary | 141 | 100% | ✓ | |
| S.N. an CillinPrimary | 140 | 47% | ✓ | |
| S.N. OsmannPrimary | 86 | 44% | ✓ | |
| Gaelscoil na LaochraPrimary | 45 | 58% | ✓ | |
| St.Brendan's Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | 875 | 53% | ✓ |
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 4 patrons of Crinkill’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Of the 7 schools around Crinkill, 4 have Bishop of Killaloe as patron, teaching 41% of the pupils; 4 patrons in all. One is an ETB school.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of KillaloeCroinchoill, St Brendans Monastery, Mercy Primary School, S.N. an Cillin | Catholic | 4 | 702 |
| Laois & Offaly ETB & Presentation BrothersSt.Brendan's | Inter-denominational | 1 | 875 |
| Bishop of Limerick, Killaloe & Ardfert COIS.N. Osmann | Church of Ireland | 1 | 86 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaGaelscoil na Laochra | Multi-denominational | 1 | 45 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Crinkill
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, 2 of the 7 grew by 5% or more and 1 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 Crinkill’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 7 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Croinchoill N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Brendans MonasteryPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Mercy Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. an CillinPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. OsmannPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Gaelscoil na LaochraPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St.Brendan's Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Crinkill
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Crinkill is St.Brendan's Community School, a community school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St.Brendan's Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 875 | 3.1 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Crinkill
No special school is in or near Crinkill. 4 of the 6 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.
Crinkill beside the 158 other Irish towns of 600 to 1,100 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buttevant | 1,080 | 2 | 802 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Belgooly | 823 | 1 | 363 | 0 | 0% | 4.9 km |
| Newport | 815 | 2 | 260 | 0 | 100% | 9.7 km |
| Ladysbridge | 809 | 1 | 214 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
| Ballon | 801 | 1 | 239 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
| Crinkill | 795 | 7 | 1,708 | 1 | 86% | 3.1 km |
| Doirí Beaga | 794 | 4 | 749 | 4 | 100% | 2.3 km |
| Corofin | 793 | 2 | 182 | 0 | 0% | 12 km |
| Kilmuckridge | 792 | 2 | 542 | 0 | 50% | 0.2 km |
| Roosky | 787 | 1 | 160 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| … | ||||||
| Na Dúnaibh | 601 | 2 | 202 | 1 | 100% | 14 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 7 of the other 158 towns than around Crinkill. Within 3 km, 15 of these 159 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Crinkill
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 Crinkill had 1,749 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,708 in 2025/26, fewer than before. Gaelscoil na Laochra grew most: +29% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Crinkill
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 Crinkill
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crinkill | 7 | 1,708 | 1 | 86% | 3.1 km |
| Birr 1.7 km | 7 | 1,708 | 1 | 86% | 1.4 km |
| Banagher 13 km | 3 | 877 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Roscrea 16 km | 8 | 1,763 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| Kilcormac 16 km | 3 | 536 | 0 | 33% | 0.7 km |
| Borrisokane 18 km | 2 | 862 | 0 | 50% | 1 km |
Of Crinkill’s neighbours, Borrisokane saw the most growth in pupils since 2019/20 (+24%) and Banagher the least (−3%); Crinkill itself: +4%.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Crinkill 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 Crinkill
How many schools are there in Crinkill?
In Crinkill or within 3 km of it: 6 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,708 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Crinkill that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Gaelscoil na Laochra teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Crinkill?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Crinkill?
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 Crinkill?
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).