Ardcarne Parish Primary School is located in the town land of Clegna on the Cootehall-Knockvicar road in the parish of Ardcarne. The school is in a rural locality and is close to the picturesque village of Cootehall. From the school, there are views of the Boyle River and the Arigna Mountains in the distance.
The school was officially opened in 1980 after the amalgamation of three local schools, Hollymount N.S., Cootehall N.S. and Knockvicar N.S., becoming St. Michael’s and St. Patrick’s NS. In August 2026, the school amalgamated again with Drumboylan NS to become Ardcarne Parish Primary School.
Presently there are 151 students enrolled in our school, with teaching and non-teaching staff as follows:
Cian Duffy (Principal) – Special Education Teacher
Catherine Martin- (Deputy Principal) – Special Education Teacher
Deirdre Brennan/ Tanya Tansey (Jobshare)- Junior Infants & Senior Infants
Laura Conroy – Senior Infants & 1st Class
Arlene Gilhooly -2nd & 3rd Class
Patrice Cregg -4th Class
Lochlainn Conboy-5th Class
Cathy Martin – 6th Class
Christine McLoughlin – Autism Class
Deirdre Brennan – SET
Anne Murray – SET
Cliona Rynn-EAL
As well as this we also have five Special Needs Assistants:
Pauline Dwyer, Joan Tiernan, Deirdre Gilboy, Amanda Cassidy and Denise Smith
Our Secretaries are Marian Woods and Kathryn Ruxton.
Our Caretaker and Cleaner are Mary Fryer and Martina Fryer.
The school has seen a number of changes since it was built in 1979. The school has six classrooms and a multi purpose room. The multi purpose room is used as a special education teaching room and one classroom has been used as a playschool since 1996.
We are fortunate to have such a large area for our school grounds. The school garden was established in 2002. We have painted games in our school yard. We have improved our sports fields in a major redevelopment. The field has been properly drained, levelled and reseeded. The school playground was installed over the Summer Holidays in 2009. There was also fencing put around the playground. The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese visited our school on 2nd February 2010 to officially open our new school playground.
We also had visits from the American Ambassador to Ireland, James C. Kenny and the American Deputy Chief of Missions, Robert Faucher. Ambassador Kenny issued a return invite to his Residence in the Phoenix Park and the senior students, teachers and parents took up his invite in June 2006.
Ardcarne Parish Primary School is a rural school which has successfully married the rural atmosphere and culture with a modern day and progressive outlook. We strive to ensure that all our students are provided with an all round education where both academic and social development is of equal importance.
We are fortunate to have a very active Parents Association who have organised and funded many activities over the years. Their Facebook page is available here.
Previous teachers in Ardcarne Parish Primary School, formerly St. Michael’s & St. Patrick’s NS include:
Michael Shivnan 1980-1994 (Principal)
Dympna O’Regan 1980-1995
Kathleen Oates 1980-1996
Kathleen Shivnan 1980-1994
Maura Doherty 1980-2004
John Francis McLoughlin 1994-2004
Ann Gilcreest 1996-1999
Evelyn McDermott 1999-2000
Denise King 2000-2002
Catherine Martin 1994-to date
Eithne Burke 2000-2003
Mary Gallagher 2000-2005
Marie Keaveney 2005-2010
Sinead Tiernan 2010-2011
Mary Carty 1997- 2016
Maura Tansey 2016-2017
Cliona McLoughlin 2016 -2017
Leann Walsh 2017-2018
Aisling McMahon 2017-2018
Sarah Kilkenny 2018-2019
Ann Marie O’Neill 2018-2019
Deirdre Brennan 2019-2020