Photo: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia · Public domainFewer single-sex secondaries around Ballina than around Co. Tipperary’s towns or Irish towns: 0%
In the comparison, Ballina comes below both Co. Tipperary’s towns (67%) and Irish towns (39%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, St Anne's Community College, has 731 pupils. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
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 Ballina’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: Killaloe Boys N.S. (104) and Mercy Convent Killaloe (97). Who runs them ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Ballina’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Ballina’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Killaloe (2), Archbishop of Cashel & Emly (1) and Limerick & Clare ETB (1). 2 of the 4 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 4 schools in and around Ballina
Here are the schools in Ballina or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. No school here carries a letter or a result: Ireland publishes neither for individual schools.
Where the 4 schools in and around Ballina 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 Ballina’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 Ballina
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 4 schools in and around Ballina teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Ballina’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Tipperary’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 Ballina | Co. Tipperary | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 15% | 31% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 3% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 15% of the pupils around Ballina, a smaller share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Tipperary: 31%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%. The biggest school in DEIS is Killaloe Boys N.S. (104 pupils).
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.N. Baile an AthaPrimary | 404 | 45% | ||
| St Anne's Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 731 | 50% | ||
| Mercy Convent KillaloePrimary | 97 | 98% | ✓ | |
| Killaloe Boys N.S.Primary | 104 | 0% | ✓ |
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 Ballina’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Of the 4 schools around Ballina, 2 have Bishop of Killaloe as patron, teaching 15% of the pupils; 3 patrons in all. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of KillaloeKillaloe Boys, Mercy Convent Killaloe | Catholic | 2 | 201 |
| Limerick & Clare ETBSt Anne's | Inter-denominational | 1 | 731 |
| Archbishop of Cashel & EmlyS.N. Baile an Atha | Catholic | 1 | 404 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ballina
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, 1 of the 4 grew by 5% or more and 2 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 Ballina’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
The Inspectorate inspects schools in several ways: a whole-school evaluation covers teaching, learning and how the school is led; a subject inspection looks at one subject; a follow-through checks on earlier advice. Reports go on gov.ie with the school’s reply.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 4 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| S.N. Baile an AthaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Anne's Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Mercy Convent KillaloePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Killaloe Boys 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 Ballina
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 Ballina is St Anne's Community College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Anne's Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 731 | 1.1 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Ballina
No special school is in or near Ballina. 2 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.
Ballina beside the 85 other Irish towns of 2,100 to 4,000 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charleville | 3,970 | 6 | 1,334 | 0 | 50% | 0.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballynanty | 3,030 | 39 | 12,623 | 4 | 51% | 0.3 km |
| Moate | 3,013 | 4 | 1,410 | 0 | 0% | 0.4 km |
| Togher | 3,007 | 60 | 20,680 | 6 | 45% | 1 km |
| Bailieborough | 2,974 | 5 | 1,420 | 0 | 20% | 0.1 km |
| Ballina | 2,959 | 4 | 1,336 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 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 |
| … | ||||||
| Dunleer | 2,143 | 5 | 1,205 | 0 | 20% | 0.8 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 50 of the other 85 towns than around Ballina. Within 3 km, 42 of these 86 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ballina
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Ballina had 1,209 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,336 in 2025/26. St Anne's Community College grew most: +31% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballina
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 Ballina
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballina | 4 | 1,336 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
| Killaloe 1 km | 4 | 1,336 | 0 | 50% | 0.7 km |
| Newport 12 km | 4 | 1,527 | 0 | 25% | 0.4 km |
| Castleconnell 12 km | 2 | 536 | 0 | 0% | 5.9 km |
| Ardnacrusha 16 km | 5 | 2,332 | 0 | 20% | 3.1 km |
| Nenagh 17 km | 11 | 3,044 | 1 | 0% | 0.1 km |
| Annacotty 18 km | 8 | 4,443 | 1 | 0% | 0.5 km |
Nenagh has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Pupils around Ballina: +9% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Newport led (+22%) and Castleconnell trailed (−5%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballina 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 Ballina
How many schools are there in Ballina?
In Ballina or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,336 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballina that teach through Irish?
None in Ballina 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 Ballina?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Ballina?
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 Ballina?
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).