Carndonagh Community School () is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located in

Carndonagh Carndonagh (; ) is a town on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland, close to Trawbreaga Bay. It is the site of the Carndonagh stones. The Irish name, ''Carn Domhnach'', means "the cairn or mound of the church". Amenities The tow ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

History

Carndonagh Community School was formed in 1972 by the merger of Carndonagh College (a local boys' school), The Convent of Mercy Secondary School (a convent school for girls), and Carndonagh Vocational School (a large established co-educational school). The late

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs ...

MLA and former

Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly The speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly () (originally having the title of Presiding Officer) is the Speaker (politics), presiding officer of the Northern Ireland Assembly, elected on a cross-community vote by the Member of the Legislative ...

John Dallat John Dallat (24 March 1947 – 5 May 2020) was an Irish politician in the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) who represented East Londonderry in the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2016, and then from 2017 until his death in 2 ...

also spent time employed as a teacher at the school.

Education

Education at the school is based on the Irish Junior Certificate and

Leaving Certificate A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

curricula. The school once claimed to be the biggest school in Ireland with over 1600 pupils. This in fact was never the case despite school management claiming in returns to the Department of Education to have an enrollment of 1703 students. After an investigation, the actual numbers were found to be 1585, an overstatement of 118 non existent students. After this a new school was built in the neighboring town of Moville. The current principal of the school is John McGuiness with Liz Kelly and Owen McConway as vice principals. The student population is over 1000 again at present.

Sports

The school's senior soccer squad became All-Ireland champions following a 2-1 victory over

Presentation Brothers College, Cork Presentation Brothers College (PBC Cork) (; colloquially known as Pres) is a Catholic, boys, private fee-paying secondary school in Cork (city), Cork, Ireland. As of 2020, Presentation Brothers College was ranked as the top boys secondary sc ...

on 11 March 2016.

Notable alumni

* Michelle Doherty, actress, model, TV host * Paul Lynch, writer & winner of the 2023

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

. *

Charlie McConalogue Charles McConalogue (born 29 October 1977) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport since January 2025. He previously served as Minister for Agriculture, Foo ...

, Fianna Fáil politician and current Minister of State for Law Reform *

Frank McGuinness Professor Frank McGuinness (born 1953) is an Irish writer. As well as his own plays, which include '' The Factory Girls'', '' Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme'', '' Someone Who'll Watch Over Me'' and '' Dolly West's Kitche ...

, award winning writer * Sam Todd, professional footballer.

References

External links

School website

Secondary schools in County Donegal Community schools in the Republic of Ireland 1972 establishments in Ireland Educational institutions established in 1972 {{Ireland-school-stub