Photo: Mike Searle · CC BY-SA 2.0Fewer of the schools around Ardfinnan are in DEIS than around Co. Tipperary’s towns or Irish towns: 0%
Set beside other towns, Ardfinnan comes out below both Co. Tipperary’s towns (50%) and Irish towns (35%). Ardfinnan N.S. is a primary with 244 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.
Where the school in or near Ardfinnan is
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 Ardfinnan’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 Ardfinnan
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 1 schools in and around Ardfinnan teaches every subject through Irish.
Who runs Ardfinnan’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
1 of Ardfinnan’s 1 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Waterford & Lismore (1). None of the 1 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.
How children get a place in Ardfinnan
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.
The school in and around Ardfinnan
Every school in Ardfinnan or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. No school here carries a letter or a result: Ireland publishes neither for individual schools.
Inspection reports for Ardfinnan’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, 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 the school should do next. They give no overall grade, so none is shown here; the school below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Ardfinnan 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 Ardfinnan
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 Ardfinnan is Colaiste Dun Iascaigh, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colaiste Dun IascaighETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 889 | 8.5 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Ardfinnan
No special school is in or near Ardfinnan. 1 of the 1 primary schools has 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.
Ardfinnan beside the 159 other Irish towns of 700 to 1,300 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cahirciveen | 1,297 | 2 | 691 | 0 | 50% | 1.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballinagh | 1,012 | 2 | 321 | 0 | 100% | 6.8 km |
| Newcastle | 1,010 | 5 | 1,475 | 0 | 20% | 3.1 km |
| Carragh | 1,006 | 2 | 1,383 | 0 | 0% | 3.5 km |
| Castletownbere | 999 | 3 | 524 | 0 | 67% | 0.4 km |
| Ardfinnan | 978 | 1 | 244 | 0 | 0% | 8.5 km |
| Myrtleville | 965 | 4 | 999 | 0 | 0% | 2.3 km |
| Leighlinbridge | 959 | 1 | 182 | 0 | 0% | 4 km |
| Summerhill | 947 | 3 | 531 | 0 | 0% | 8.4 km |
| Drommahane | 947 | 1 | 207 | 0 | 0% | 3.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Shanagarry | 700 | 2 | 201 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
Among the 159 other towns, 110 have more pupils at their schools than Ardfinnan does. 17 of the 160 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ardfinnan
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 Ardfinnan had 229 pupils in 2015/16 and 244 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Ardfinnan
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 Ardfinnan
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
Clonmel has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. The roll around Ardfinnan moved +6% since 2019/20; nearby, Cahir grew most (+13%) and Clonmel least (+4%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ardfinnan 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 Ardfinnan
How many schools are there in Ardfinnan?
In Ardfinnan or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school, with 244 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ardfinnan that teach through Irish?
None in Ardfinnan or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Ardfinnan?
Not in Ardfinnan or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Colaiste Dun Iascaigh, 8.5 km away.
What is the best school in Ardfinnan?
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 Ardfinnan?
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).