Cork City

Best Schools in County Cork

According to the Sunday Times 2011 Parent Power Survey of Secondary schools in Ireland – these are the top 10 schools in Cork.

1. Presentation Brothers College Mardyke
2. Scoil Mhuire , Cork
3. Colaiste an Phiarsaigh , Glanmire
4. St Mary’s Mallow
5. Mount Mercy College , Cork
6. Colaiste na Toirbhirte, Bandon
7. Presentation Secondary , Mitchelstown
8. Sacred Heart Clonakilty
9. Christian Brothers College , Cork
10. Brandon Grammar – Bandon

The chart is compiled based on the number of pupils that go to third level education. This may not be an accurate measure of a school’s performance but in the absence of any government figures or published results – it is all we have to go on.
Teachers in Ireland do not seem to want to publish exam results.

Towns with the Best Broadband Speeds

According to speed tests carried out on Speedtest.net – between Sept 2008 and MArch 20011 these are the Top 10 towns with  fastest internet download speeds in Ireland

1. Lucan 15.33 Mbps
2. Maynooth  12.84 Mbps
3. Celbridge  11.53 Mbps
4. Swords  11.25  Mbps
5. Kilcock 10.76 Mbps
6. Naas  10.73 Mbps
7. Newbridge 10.68 Mbps
8. Carlow 9.39 Mbps
9. Athlone 9.31 Mbps
10. Dublin  8.88Mbps

By comparison – the same speed test site has the top 10 UK towns with average speeds ranging from 21Mbps to 29 Mbps. The top Irish town wouldn’t make it into the top 50 in the UK.

Cork came out with an av speed of 5.54 Mbps while Galway did slightly better with 6.28Mbps.
Tuam was the slowest shown – with av speeds of 1.31 Mbps

For Upload Speeds – these were the top ten Irish towns or cities

1 Dundalk 2.55 Mbps
2 Carlow 2.09 Mbps
3 Wicklow 1.90 Mbps
4 Athlone 1.76 Mbps
5 Lucan 1.70 Mbps
6 Maynooth 1.66 Mbps
7 Waterford 1.46 Mbps
8 Tralee 1.40 Mbps
9 Cavan 1.40 Mbps
10. Tipperary 1.33 Mbps

Overall – on the speedtest site – Ireland ranks in 52nd place. Results were obtained by analyzing test data between Feb 12, 2011 and Mar 13, 2011. Tests from 1,100,532 unique IPs have been taken in this country and of 7,145,506 total tests, 13,914 are being used for the current Index.

Cork Mobile Speed Camera Hot Spots

County Cork – Speed Camera Locations November 2010

A private company is being employed to provide mobile speed cameras at 600 locations all over Ireland.  They will operate in known  accident blackspots .The cameras will be operated by a consortium called GoSafe. There will be just 45 camera vans with cameras that will move between the 600 locations in Ireland .

Top 20 Tourist Attractions In Ireland

These are the most popular places for visitors in Ireland.
Based on visitor numbers for 2008. These are all destinations that charge a fee.
The number of visitors is shown next to each attraction. Figures from Failte Ireland

Guinness Storehouse            1,038,910
Dublin Zoo                                     932,000
Cliffs of Moher                              808,310
National Aquatic Centre          706,739
Book of Kells                                 541,364
Dublin Castle                                 365,000
Blarney Castle                            360,000
St Patrick’s Cathedral     Dublin          345,965
Fota Wildlife Park   Cork          331,062
Bunratty Castle                         305,557
Kilmainham Gaol                     300,828
Waterford Crystal Visitor Centre        290,000
Kilkenny Castle                        256,533
Jameson Distillery                250,000
Rock of Cashel                        237,732
Bru Na Boinne                         236,312
Powerscourt House & Gardens          232,257
Kylemore Abbey & Garden                 180,000
Christ Church Cathedral    Dublin         180,000
Atlantic Edge                      166,017

Fairtrade Towns in Ireland

The following Irish Towns had Fairtrade status at the end of 2009:

Athlone, Ballymun, Baltinglass, Bandon, Bantry, Belfast, Bray, Carlow, Cashel, Castlebar, Clonakilty, Cork, Dublin, Ennis, Galway, Greystones, Kilkenny, Kinsale, Leighlin, Limerick, Longford, Maynooth, Midleton, Mullingar, Newbridge, Newry, Portlaoise, Roscommon, Roscrea, Skibbereen, Sligo, Thurles,  Tralee, Tubbercurry, Waterford, Westport, Wexford

These towns in Ireland are working towards Fairtrade town status.

Antrim, Athy, Buncrana, Cahir, Carrick On Suir, Clones, Clonmel, Dun Laoghaire, Glanmire, Gort, Leixlip, Mallow, Naas, Nenagh, Schull, Temple Bar, Templemore, Tipperary, Trim, Tuam, Tullamore, Warrenpoint, and Newcastle West

IBAL Litter League Table 2010

IBAL – The Irish Business Against Litter – have released their latest results on the litter in  50 towns and cities in Ireland.

Wexford came out as the cleanest place out of the 50 places in the survey – with Tallaght coming out as the worst Litter Blackspot.
Of course – there could be towns cleaner than Wexford and just as dirty as Tallaght – but only towns with populations over 6000 are included.

Here is the full table of rankings  released in August 2010

1 Wexford Clean to European Norms

2 Longford Clean to European Norms

3 Blanchardstown Clean to European Norms

4 Drogheda Clean to European Norms

5 Carlow Clean to European Norms

6 Trim Clean to European Norms

7 Killarney Clean to European Norms

8 Clonmel Clean to European Norms

9 Ballincollig Clean to European Norms

10 Lucan Clean to European Norms

11 Sligo Clean to European Norms

12 Ennis Clean to European Norms

13 Fermoy Clean to European Norms

14 Dungarvan Clean to European Norms

15 Letterkenny Clean to European Norms

16 Kildare Clean to European Norms

17 Waterford City Clean to European Norms

18 Cavan Clean to European Norms

19 Dun Laoghaire Clean to European Norms

20 Dundalk Clean to European Norms

21 Bray Clean to European Norms

22 Kilkenny Clean to European Norms

23 Tullamore Clean to European Norms

24 Tralee Clean to European Norms

25 Ballinasloe Clean to European Norms

26 Arklow Clean to European Norms

27 Mallow Clean to European Norms

28 Galway City Moderately Littered

29 Dublin City Moderately Littered

30 Newcastlewest Moderately Littered

31 Enniscorthy Moderately Littered

32 Swords Moderately Littered

33 Tramore Moderately Littered

34 Roscommon Moderately Littered

35 Mullingar Moderately Littered

36 Cork City Moderately Littered

37 Youghal Moderately Littered

38 Cobh Moderately Littered

39 Navan Moderately Littered

40 Tuam Moderately Littered

41 Wicklow Moderately Littered

42 Ballina Moderately Littered

43 Nenagh Moderately Littered

44 Newbridge Littered

45 Castlebar Littered

46 New Ross Littered

47 Monaghan Littered

48 Athlone Littered

49 Limerick City Littered

50 Midleton Seriously Littered

51 Naas Seriously Littered

52 Portlaoise Litter Blackspot

53 Tallaght Litter Blackspot

Top 20 Secondary Schools in Ireland

According to the Sunday Times – these are the top 20 secondary schools in Ireland.
They base their results on the numbers of students gaining places in autumn 2008 and 2009 at one of the nine universities on the island of Ireland, main teacher training colleges, Royal College of Surgeons, National College of Art and Design or any English,Welsh or Scottish university or equivalent.

This may not be the best measure of school performance – but since the Irish government and the Irish teachers don’t want to publish exam results or carry out proper inspections with meaningful comparable results – these figures are all we have.

Top 20 Schools

1  Gonzaga College, Ranelagh, Dublin
2  Colaiste Iosagain, Booterstown, Co Dublin
3  Glenstal Abbey School, Murroe, Co Limerick
4  Mount Anville Secondary School, Goatstown, Dublin 14 G
5  The Teresian School, Donnybrook, Dublin 4
6  Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2
7  Holy Child Secondary School, Killiney, Co Dublin G
8  Laurel Hill Colaiste FCJ, Sth Circular Rd, Limerick G
9  Alexandra College, Milltown, Dublin 6
10  Scoil Mhuire, Sydney Place, Cork
11  Colaiste Eoin, Booterstown, Co Dublin B
12  Clongowes Wood College, Naas, Co Kildare B
13  Jesus&Mary Secondary School, Salthill, Galway G
14  Presentation Brothers College, Mardyke, Cork B
15  St Gerard’s, Bray, Co Wicklow M
16  Muckross Park College, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 G 7
17  Ursuline Secondary School, Thurles, Co Tipperary G
18  Loreto High School, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 G
19  St Andrew’s College, Blackrock, Co Dublin M
20  St Joseph of Cluny Secondary School, Killiney,

Cleanest and Dirtiest Towns Ireland

Yet another litter survey by  IBAL  . The 2009 results were released today (Jan 4th 2010)  The  litter survey covers 60 towns with  over 6,000 population . Sites are graded by An Taisce according to international standards.

The cleanest town was Bray – whilst the two dirtiest were Limerick and Wicklow.

IBAL Anti Litter League Final Results 2009

1 Bray

2 Cavan

3 Drogheda

4 Clonmel

5 Longford

6 Wexford

7 Carlow

8 Sligo

9 Celbridge

10 Blanchardstown

11 Ballincollig

12 Dundalk

13 Mullingar

14 Trim

15 Portlaoise

16 Navan

17 Roscommon

18 Dún Laoghaire

19 Tramore

20 Shannon

21 Killarney

22 Leixlip

23 Dungarvan

24 Ballina

25 Castlebar

26 Kilkenny

27 Fermoy

28 Swords

29 Balbriggan

30 Newbridge

31 Newcastlewest

32 Midleton

33 Ashbourne

34 Thurles

35 Enniscorthy

36 Youghal

37 Monaghan

38 Lucan

39 Cobh

Moderately Littered

40 Waterford City

41 Buncrana

42 Tullamore

43 Arklow

44 Gorey

45 Galway

46 Ennis

47 Tuam

48 Tralee

49 New Ross

Littered

50 Cork City

51 Dublin City

52 Naas

53 Nenagh

Seriously Littered

54 Ballinasloe

55 Tallaght

56 Letterkenny

57 Athlone

58 Mallow

Litter Blackspots

59 Wicklow

60 Limerick City

Litter problems in some Irish Towns

The IBAL 2009 results were published this week – IBAL is the Irish Business Against Litter. Certain towns are checked for litter during the year by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL . All towns in Ireland of over 6,000 inhabitants are now covered by the Anti Litter League . Sixty towns in all were surveyed – the best town (cleanest) was Wexford

Top Ten Cleanest Towns 2009

1 Wexford
2 Ennis
3 Youghal
4 Carlow
5 Dun Laoghaire
6 Swords
7 Balbriggan
8 Longford
9 Roscommon
10 Killarney
Two towns came out as the worst  in the survey this year – they were  Mallow and Athlone – both were classed as Litter Blackspots.

Arklow was the the third worst – classed as Seriously Littered .
Other towns that did badly (classed as littered)

45 Buncrana
46 Dublin City
47 Cork City
48 Limerick City
49 Nenagh
50 Naas
51 Kilkenny
52 Waterford City
53 Portlaoise
54 Trim
55 Wicklow
56 Gorey
57 Tallaght

Litter League – the worst Towns in Ireland

Tallaght is the dirtiest town in Ireland – that’s according to “Irish Business Against Litter “  They are an alliance of companies who say they share a sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity  is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment. As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors all towns of population 6,000 and over, independently in accordance with international grading standards.

The first round of results were published today and 3 towns came out as being Litter Blackspots. These towns were  Tullamore , Roscommon and worst of all was Tallaght .
The towns of Bray , Ballina,  Cobh,  Enniscorthy,  and Longford did not come out too well  either – they were all classed as Seriously Littered.

Slightly better – but still classed as Littered were the towns of Athy, Kilkenny ,Limerick City, Cork City, Ranelagh and  Mallow
Ennis came out top of the League out of  55 towns and cities in Ireland.