Listowel Presentation Primary
School Details
Location
About
Presentation Primary School, Listowel is an all‑girls primary school with a Catholic ethos that also recognises other faiths. The school aims to create a caring community where pupils, parents and staff work together to achieve academic excellence and personal growth. Its curriculum is broad and challenging, encouraging intellectual freedom, critical thinking and creative expression while nurturing emotional, spiritual and social development. The campus on Ballybunion Road provides a range of modern facilities, including eight classrooms, four resource rooms, a sports hall, a large outdoor basketball court and a well‑equipped playground. Dedicated spaces such as an Aistear room, a sensory room and a school shop support specialised learning and wellbeing. A variety of extracurricular clubs are offered, from pottery, dancing, gymnastics and yoga to drama, swimming, football skills and a Lego Club, giving pupils ample opportunity to explore interests beyond the classroom.
History
The school traces its origins to 1842 when Fr Darby Mahony, the Parish Priest of Listowel, commissioned a Presentation Convent. In May 1844 four Presentation Sisters arrived from Milltown to establish a National School, opening with 300 pupils, a number that soon rose to 500, including adult learners preparing for Confirmation. Despite the hardships of the 1845 famine—during which the Sisters provided daily meals of bread, boiled rice and milk—the community grew. By 1849 a convent chapel was built, followed by an infant school in 1852 and a prominent cross erected in 1853. The primary school’s main building was erected in 1883, funded by the Sisters, and a new facility on the Ballybunion Road was opened in 1990, shared with Nano Nagle School. Today the school continues the Sisters’ legacy of education and service.