Photo: Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Cahir take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Tipperary’s towns and Irish towns
Set beside other towns, Cahir comes out below both Co. Tipperary’s towns (67%) and Irish towns (39%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Colaiste Dun Iascaigh, has 889 pupils. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never 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 2 schools in and around Cahir
Every school in Cahir 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.
Where the 2 schools in and around Cahir 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 Cahir’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 Cahir
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Cahir teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Cahir’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against 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 Cahir | Co. Tipperary | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 32% | 31% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 3% | 6% |
| Girls | 46% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 32% of the pupils around Cahir, a larger share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Tipperary: 31%). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is Bunscoil na Cathrach, with 411 pupils.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colaiste Dun IascaighPost-primary · ETB | 889 | 46% | ||
| Bunscoil na CathrachPrimary | 411 | 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 Cahir’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
1 of Cahir’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Tipperary ETB (1) and Bishop of Waterford & Lismore (1). 1 of the 2 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.
How children get a place in Cahir
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.
Inspection reports for Cahir’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 2 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Colaiste Dun IascaighPost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Bunscoil na CathrachPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Cahir
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Within 10 km of Cahir there are 2 post-primary schools: one ETB school and one voluntary secondary school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. One of them charges fees. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colaiste Dun IascaighETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 889 | 0.6 km |
| Rockwell CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | Fee-paying, Boarding | 455 | 9.2 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Cahir
No special school is in or near Cahir. 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.
Cahir beside the 93 other Irish towns of 2,600 to 5,000 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glounthaune | 5,000 | 32 | 10,210 | 4 | 19% | 3.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Mitchelstown | 3,744 | 5 | 1,646 | 0 | 40% | 0.4 km |
| Stamullen | 3,720 | 3 | 1,043 | 0 | 0% | 2.1 km |
| Ballinacurra | 3,719 | 48 | 15,810 | 6 | 46% | 0.8 km |
| Cork City Centre | 3,701 | 77 | 23,441 | 7 | 48% | 0.5 km |
| Cahir | 3,679 | 2 | 1,300 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Riverstown | 3,664 | 12 | 4,146 | 3 | 8% | 0.8 km |
| Enfield | 3,663 | 4 | 1,342 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Westbury | 3,636 | 29 | 9,896 | 3 | 55% | 0.9 km |
| Ballyfermot | 3,632 | 58 | 19,071 | 2 | 57% | 0.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Baltinglass | 2,611 | 3 | 912 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 75 of the other 93 towns than around Cahir. Within 3 km, 60 of these 94 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Cahir
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 Cahir had 1,087 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,300 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Cahir
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 Cahir
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
Clonmel has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Pupils around Cahir: +13% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Fethard led (+32%) and Cashel trailed (−1%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Cahir 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 Cahir
How many schools are there in Cahir?
In Cahir or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 secondary school, with 1,300 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Cahir that teach through Irish?
None in Cahir 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 Cahir?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Cahir?
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 Cahir?
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).