About

Principal's Address

Welcome to St Flannan’s College

The same bell tower has watched over St Flannan’s since 1881. It has seen boarders and day boys come and go, the first girls arrive in 2002, and every morning it sees the whole College walk up the avenue beneath it. There has been a school of that name in Ennis since 1846, and generations of Clare families have trusted it with their sons and daughters. That trust is the foundation of everything we do. We are one of the largest schools in the country, and we have grown because families keep choosing us.

The grounds teach too. Set among trees that were old when the College was built, the campus has room to breathe: three full-size GAA pitches, a full-size soccer pitch, an outdoor basketball court and, with planning permission now granted, a new gym on the way.

We are a Catholic, co-educational school under the patronage of the Bishop of Killaloe, and we welcome families of all faiths and none. Our values are respect, effort and resilience, and our ethos rests on a simple belief: every student is known, every student matters, and every student has more in them than they yet realise. Our work is to help them find it.

Finding it begins in the classroom. Students choose from one of the widest ranges of subjects in the county, 23 Leaving Certificate subjects from Japanese to Computer Science, Construction Studies to Music, taught by teachers who expect a great deal and give a great deal in return. The results follow. In 97% of our Leaving Certificate subjects, more of our students sit Higher Level than the national average, and their results are well above it. Every year St Flannan’s sends more students on to third level than any other school in Clare. This summer a sixth-year student won a bronze medal for Ireland at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Shanghai, and our students have twice won the international Space Settlement Contest founded by NASA, most recently taking first place in the senior section in 2025. Not all students will win a medal, and we do not ask them to. We ask each of them to push themselves and find out how far they can go, and we promise to meet them wherever they start.

Growth happens beyond the timetable too. Transition Year opens doors, from first aid and law to journalism and wheelchair basketball, and music, art, drama, Green Schools, Erasmus+ exchanges and the clubs that meet at lunchtime and after school give everyone somewhere to belong. See what goes on at the College.

Sport is part of that education. A pitch or a court teaches things no classroom can: what it takes to prepare, how to be part of a team, how to lead and how to be led, what it feels like to win and, more importantly, how to lose and come back. Our girls have set the standard in recent years: Munster and All-Ireland basketball titles at junior and senior level, the Munster 7s camogie title in 2026 and two ladies’ football titles in the same year, and there is a team for every girl who wants to play. Our hurlers hold the record for Harty Cup titles and contested the 2026 final, and our first-year soccer team won the FAI Schools National Cup in 2025.

Our belief that every student matters took physical form in 2026 when we opened the Hub, a purpose-built home on the campus for three new autism classes. The students of the Hub are St Flannan’s students in every sense. They share the avenue, the yard, the teams and the stage, and the whole school is richer for it. Our students learn patience, respect and friendship across difference, and that is a privilege we do not take lightly.

A school of this size works because no one is allowed to get lost in it. The step from a primary classroom to secondary school is a big one, so our first-year induction programme eases new students into life here before the timetable takes over. Each year group has two year heads and a team of tutors who know their students by name, our guidance team keeps an open door for students and parents, and learning support, homework club and after-school study are there for anyone who wishes to use them. How we support our students.

If you are choosing a secondary school for your son or daughter, walk the avenue some evening and take in what makes St Flannan’s special: the old trees, the 1881 building, the pitches, and the sense of a place that has been shaping young lives for 180 years. Everyone who has walked that avenue has left something of themselves here and carried something of St Flannan’s away with them. We are proud of this school, and our hope, as it has been since 1846, is that every student who leaves it can look back on their years here with the same pride in who they have become. How to apply.

Donal Cahir
Principal