Setanta School is a co-educational day school and is located at Beechpark, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin. It is specifically for children on the Autistic Spectrum 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 12 teachers and 24 Special Needs Assistants as well as the Principal, Loman O Loingsigh and we cater for 59 students as of the school year 2015-2016. We now 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.