Photo: Dylan Moore · CC BY-SA 2.0No school in or within 3 km of Ballinalack
The nearest primary school is 4.4 km away. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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.
Post-primary schools within reach of Ballinalack
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Ballinalack is Wilson's Hospital School, a voluntary secondary school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilson's Hospital SchoolVoluntary secondary · Church of Ireland | Girls and boys | Boarding | 453 | 3.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Schools in the towns around Ballinalack
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballinalack | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 3.9 km |
| Edgeworthstown 12 km | 3 | 423 | 0 | 33% | 11 km |
| Castlepollard 13 km | 3 | 512 | 0 | 67% | 1 km |
| Mullingar 14 km | 18 | 6,384 | 2 | 33% | 0.4 km |
| Granard 17 km | 6 | 1,295 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
Mullingar has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballinalack 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 Ballinalack
How many schools are there in Ballinalack?
None in Ballinalack or within 3 km of it; the nearest primary school is 4.4 km away.
Are there schools in Ballinalack that teach through Irish?
None in Ballinalack or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Ballinalack?
Not in Ballinalack or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Wilson's Hospital School, 3.9 km away.
What is the best school in Ballinalack?
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 Ballinalack?
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).