Principal's Welcome,

The School was originally founded in 1965 by the HSE and was called St Loman’s Special School. It was located next to St Loman’s Hospital as, at the time, most of the students were resident there. In this incarnation, the School was intended to cater for all forms of special needs clients and was not autism specific. In 1990 the school was moved to Blanchardstown and became known as James Connolly Special School. It was at this point that the primary function of the school was to cater for those on the ASD spectrum. There were only two teachers working in the school at that stage and this was the case up until 1995 when it moved to its current location and adopted the name Setanta School. Our sister school, Ballyowen Meadows (which caters for pre teens on the ASD spectrum) had moved to a nearby building the previous year and the move had proved a success. Initially Setanta shared the school with Mary Immaculate School for the Deaf but this arrangement only lasted for one year after which Setanta had full use of the building.

 

Since this time, the number of students which Setanta has been able to accommodate has grown substantially and staff numbers have increased accordingly. We currently have 14 teachers and 36 Special Needs Assistants as well as myself the Principal, Loman Ó Loingsigh and we cater for 65 students as of the school year 2023-2024. We make use of the buildings formerly occupied by Ballyowen Meadows as this school has temporarily moved to a facility in Loughlinstown. This has allowed us to further expand our facilities and to develop a gym, a games room and variety of other useful areas including our Fetac kitchen. 

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In March 2020 Setanta School relocated to Limekiln Road, Greenhills, Dublin 12 to facilitate the building of new schools on the site in Stillorgan. We are sharing a school building in Greenhills with Riverview Educate Together Primary School until the new build in Stillorgan is completed.



Sincerely,

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Loman Ó Loingsigh
​School Principal