Photo: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia · Public domainFewer single-sex secondaries around Boyle than around Irish towns: 0%
For Boyle, that is below Irish towns (39%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Abbey Community College, has 620 pupils. 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 Boyle’s schools
More pupils every year
Pupil numbers at the schools here have grown faster than across Ireland (+5% since 2019/20), so classes and new places are a question worth asking. Pupils over time ↓
One school growing fast
Of the schools here, Abbey Community College has grown fastest, from 411 in 2019/20 to 620. Getting a place ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Boyle
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 Boyle had 732 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,103 in 2025/26. Abbey Community College grew most: +51% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Boyle
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.
The 4 schools in and around Boyle
Each school in or within 3 km of Boyle links to a page of its own. Letters and results are missing here for a reason: Ireland publishes neither school by school.
Where the 4 schools in and around Boyle 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 Boyle’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 Boyle
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 4 schools in and around Boyle teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Boyle’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Roscommon’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 Boyle | Co. Roscommon | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 29% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 1% | 6% |
| Girls | 50% | 48% | 49% |
Fewer of the pupils around Boyle are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 0% against 27% (Co. Roscommon: 29%). The biggest difference from Ireland is in pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here, 6% there.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbey Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 620 | 50% | ||
| Abbey Primary SchoolPrimary | 427 | 52% | ||
| S.N. ParoisteachPrimary | 24 | 42% | ||
| Grange N.S.Primary | 32 | 44% |
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 Boyle’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Boyle’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Elphin (2), Galway & Roscommon ETB (1) and Bishop of Kilmore Elphin & Ardagh COI (1). None of the 4 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 Boyle’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Bishop of Elphin is patron of 2 of the 4 schools around Boyle, which teach 42% of their pupils; 3 patrons run them in all. An Education and Training Board runs one of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of ElphinAbbey Primary School, Grange | Catholic | 2 | 459 |
| Galway & Roscommon ETBAbbey | Inter-denominational | 1 | 620 |
| Bishop of Kilmore Elphin & Ardagh COIS.N. Paroisteach | Church of Ireland | 1 | 24 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Boyle
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 3 grew by 5% or more and 0 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 Boyle’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 4 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Abbey Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Abbey Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. ParoisteachPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Grange 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 Boyle
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Boyle is Abbey Community College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbey Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 620 | 0.2 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Boyle
No special school is in or near Boyle. 1 of the 3 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.
Boyle beside the 87 other Irish towns of 2,000 to 3,900 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claremorris | 3,857 | 3 | 1,120 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Kingscourt | 2,955 | 5 | 1,252 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) | 2,945 | 6 | 1,570 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| Bantry | 2,929 | 4 | 1,227 | 1 | 0% | 0.9 km |
| Ballyjamesduff | 2,917 | 2 | 1,000 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Boyle | 2,915 | 4 | 1,103 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Murrough | 2,909 | 22 | 7,826 | 2 | 41% | 1.6 km |
| Skibbereen | 2,903 | 5 | 1,562 | 1 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Carna | 2,897 | 60 | 18,688 | 4 | 58% | 0.9 km |
| Ballybrack | 2,872 | 41 | 11,728 | 1 | 29% | 0.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Enniskerry | 2,000 | 10 | 2,487 | 0 | 20% | 2.9 km |
Of these 87 other towns, 65 count more pupils at their schools than Boyle. Within 3 km, 42 of these 88 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Boyle
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boyle | 4 | 1,103 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Carrick-On-Shannon 14 km | 5 | 1,575 | 1 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Drumshanbo 19 km | 2 | 752 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
Carrick-On-Shannon has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. The roll around Boyle moved +32% since 2019/20; nearby, Drumshanbo grew most (+46%) and Carrick-On-Shannon least (+4%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Boyle 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 Boyle
How many schools are there in Boyle?
In Boyle or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,103 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Boyle that teach through Irish?
None in Boyle 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 Boyle?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Boyle?
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 Boyle?
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).