Photo: Philip Halling · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Dunhill, only 0% of schools are in DEIS, fewer than around Co. Waterford’s towns or Irish towns
Set beside other towns, Dunhill comes out below both Co. Waterford’s towns (41%) and Irish towns (35%). Every one of its 2 schools within 3 km has a Catholic ethos. 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.
Where the 2 schools in and around Dunhill 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 Dunhill’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.
Who runs Dunhill’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Dunhill’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Waterford & Lismore (2). None of the 2 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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Dunhill
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Dunhill teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Dunhill’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Waterford’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Dunhill | Co. Waterford | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 30% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 46% | 49% | 49% |
0% of the pupils around Dunhill are at a DEIS school, fewer than the 27% across Ireland (30% in Co. Waterford). Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 0% against 6%.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.N. Dun AillPrimary | 87 | 54% | ||
| Fionnabhair N.S.Primary | 172 | 42% |
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.
How children get a place in Dunhill
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, 0 of the 2 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.
The 2 schools in and around Dunhill
Every school in Dunhill or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. No letters, no results: Irish schools aren’t ranked one by one.
Inspection reports for Dunhill’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
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 2 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| S.N. Dun AillPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Fionnabhair 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 Dunhill
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 Dunhill is Ardscoil na Mara, a voluntary secondary school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardscoil na MaraVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 1,227 | 7.2 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Dunhill
No special school is in or near Dunhill. 1 of the 2 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.
Dunhill beside the 128 other Irish towns of 200 to 300 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballyforan | 227 | 1 | 59 | 0 | 100% | 6.8 km |
| Killurin | 223 | 2 | 157 | 0 | 50% | 9.3 km |
| Ballymacoda | 223 | 1 | 325 | 0 | 0% | 8.1 km |
| Bridebridge | 223 | 2 | 626 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| Dunhill | 223 | 2 | 259 | 0 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| Ballinameen | 223 | 1 | 47 | 0 | 0% | 8.1 km |
| Swanlinbar | 222 | 1 | 57 | 0 | 100% | 8 km |
| Dundrum | 221 | 1 | 147 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Causeway | 220 | 4 | 771 | 0 | 25% | 0.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lahardane | 200 | 1 | 76 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
Among the 128 other towns, 25 have more pupils at their schools than Dunhill does. Within 3 km, 7 of these 129 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Dunhill
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Dunhill had 334 pupils in 2015/16 and 259 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Dunhill
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 Dunhill
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
Ballytruckle has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 3. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Dunhill changed by −9%; among its neighbours, Lisduggan’s grew most (+4%) and Tramore’s least (−2%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Dunhill 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 Dunhill
How many schools are there in Dunhill?
In Dunhill or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools, with 259 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Dunhill that teach through Irish?
None in Dunhill or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Dunhill?
Not in Dunhill or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Ardscoil na Mara, 7.2 km away.
What is the best school in Dunhill?
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 Dunhill?
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).