21 Dublin Secondary School Leaders Worth Knowing

Jonno White
Aug 4
11 min read

Last updated: August 2026

Introduction

This list introduces 21 people leading secondary schools across Dublin, from the city centre to the northside coast and the southern suburbs. It offers a practical look at the people guiding schools with different histories, traditions and communities.

The schools include voluntary secondary schools, community and comprehensive schools, and independent colleges. Together they show how varied secondary school leadership can be across the county.

The profiles are not a ranking. Each one is a short introduction to a leader, a school and something distinctive about the community they serve.

Why Secondary School Leadership in Dublin Matters

Secondary school leaders in Dublin carry responsibility for academic standards, pastoral care and day-to-day culture. Their choices shape how students and staff experience school.

A Principal sets the tone for everything from exam results to how a school handles a difficult year. Public attention tends to focus on individual schools' Leaving Certificate outcomes or open-day marketing, but the person actually running the building week to week rarely gets named in that conversation.

Dublin's school landscape includes voluntary schools run by trusts, community and comprehensive schools with joint patronage, and independent colleges. A Principal may be leading within a structure that brings together several traditions and expectations.

1. Jim Murphy

Principal, Sandford Park School

Jim Murphy is Principal of Sandford Park School, a co-educational independent school on Sandford Road in Ranelagh. He was appointed in 2025 after serving the school as an Assistant Principal and Head of Music.

Murphy has led work on school self-evaluation, policy development and improvement planning. His background also includes work as a School Placement Supervisor and guest lecturer with Trinity College Dublin, alongside qualifications in music education, law and education.

2. Clare Catterson

Principal, Synge Street CBS

Clare Catterson is Principal of Synge Street CBS on Dublin's south inner city, a school that has educated boys since 1864 under the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. She leads the college's management team in the heart of Dublin 8, one of the longer continuously operating secondary schools in this list.

That heritage stretches back more than 160 years and now sits alongside a modern management team and staff structure that Catterson heads. The school's own materials describe it plainly as an ERST school serving the city.

3. John Cronin

Principal, Castleknock Community College

John Cronin is Principal of Castleknock Community College, a co-educational school established in 1995 under the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board. He leads a school built for the growing Castleknock area in Dublin 15, distinct from the separate, older Castleknock College nearby.

Cronin's college runs its own Academic Excellence Awards scheme, recognising students for high achievement in both Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations. It is a concrete example of a school building its own recognition culture around its students' results.

4. Jackie Dempsey

Principal, Loreto College, St Stephen's Green

Jackie Dempsey is Principal of Loreto College, St Stephen's Green, a girls' secondary school in the heart of Dublin 2. Founded in 1833 in the tradition of Mary Ward, the college is one of the oldest Loreto schools in the country and one of very few secondary schools inside Dublin's city centre.

The school's students are described on its own site as "seekers of Truth and doers of Justice", a phrase drawn directly from the Loreto tradition Dempsey now leads, reflecting nearly two centuries of continuity in a single city-centre building.

5. Amy Doherty

Principal, Ballinteer Community School

Amy Doherty is Principal of Ballinteer Community School in Dublin 16, a co-educational community school with a stated positive, warm ethos. She leads a school community that has grown through decades of serving families in the Ballinteer area of south Dublin.

The school runs a Trinity Access Programme and a College For Every Student partnership, both aimed at widening the path from secondary school into third level. It is a practical example of a Dublin school investing directly in progression beyond the Leaving Certificate.

6. Gerry Duffy

School Principal, CBC Monkstown Park

Gerry Duffy is School Principal of Christian Brothers College, Monkstown Park, in Dun Laoghaire, a school founded in 1856 and based on its current site since 1950. He leads the college through a milestone year for the school's history on that site.

2025 marked CBC Monkstown Park's Diamond Jubilee on the Monkstown Park site, and the Board is midway through a multi-million euro capital plan covering new pitches, a running track and a planned sports hall. Duffy is leading the school through that physical transformation.

7. Robert Dunne

Principal, Loreto Abbey Secondary School, Dalkey

Robert Dunne is Principal of Loreto Abbey Secondary School in Dalkey, a girls' school on Dublin's southern coast rooted in the same Loreto tradition founded by Mary Ward. He leads a school community shaped by the values of justice, freedom, sincerity, truth and joy.

The school frames its State Examination results as evidence of consistently high academic standards, alongside a wide co-curricular programme. Dunne leads that balance between examination performance and the broader Loreto formation the school is known for.

8. Caroline Garrett

Principal, Oatlands College

Caroline Garrett is Principal of Oatlands College in Stillorgan, a boys' secondary school within the Edmund Rice tradition and part of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. She leads a school whose ethos is explicitly built on the example of founder Blessed Edmund Rice, serving families across south Dublin from a single Stillorgan campus.

On the college's own site, Garrett writes about pairing high academic achievement with a caring, structured environment for every student, a description that ties the school's Edmund Rice heritage directly to its everyday practice under her leadership as Principal.

9. Joyce Kavanagh

Principal, Santa Sabina Dominican College

Joyce Kavanagh is Principal of Santa Sabina Dominican College, a girls' secondary school in Sutton that has educated the Sutton and Howth region since 1912. She leads a school with more than a century of continuous service to that part of north Dublin, within the wider Le Cheile Schools Trust.

The college participates in the Worldwise Global Schools programme, connecting classroom learning to global citizenship themes for its students. Kavanagh's leadership sits at the point where a century-old local school meets a genuinely international curriculum focus.

10. Tim Kelleher

Principal, St Michael's College, Ailesbury Road

Tim Kelleher is Principal of St Michael's College on Ailesbury Road in Dublin 4, a boys' school founded in 1944 by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. He leads a school that grew from a junior school into a full secondary college in 1975.

That history spans more than eighty years of continuous operation on the same site. Kelleher now leads the school through its collaborative approach to education, one the school's own material credits to partnership between parents, staff and students.

11. Ursula McCabe

Principal, Old Bawn Community School

Ursula McCabe is Principal of Old Bawn Community School in Tallaght, a co-educational school that has served its community for 42 years. She leads a school explicitly focused on college and career readiness for the decade ahead, working in partnership with families across the wider Tallaght area.

On the school's own welcome page, McCabe frames the school's mission around twenty-first century skills, tolerance and wellbeing for every student. That combination of a long local history and a forward-looking mission defines her current leadership of the school and its community.

12. Damon McCaul

Principal, Gonzaga College

Damon McCaul is Principal of Gonzaga College, a fee-paying Catholic voluntary secondary school for boys on Sandford Road in Ranelagh. The Department of Education's own school register lists his role and the college's Jesuit, boys-only character under roll number 60530S, alongside its fee-paying funding status.

Gonzaga sits among Dublin's smaller number of fee-paying voluntary secondary schools, distinguishing it within the wider mix of ETB, community and trust schools covered elsewhere in this list. McCaul's leadership spans that particular corner of Dublin's post-primary landscape, in the heart of Ranelagh.

13. John McHugh

Principal, Ardscoil Ris

John McHugh is Principal of Ardscoil Ris on Griffith Avenue in Dublin 9, an Edmund Rice Schools Trust school for boys serving the city's northside. He leads the college through its recently marked 50th Anniversary Celebrations, a milestone the school features prominently on its own website.

That half-century sits alongside the school's ongoing Edmund Rice ethos of partnership between students, staff and the wider Dublin 9 community. McHugh's leadership connects the school's long history on Griffith Avenue to its current daily life and future plans.

14. Sorcha McManus

Principal, Sancta Maria College

Sorcha McManus is Principal of Sancta Maria College in Rathfarnham, an all-girls Catholic voluntary secondary school with over 570 students. She leads a proud CEIST school, part of the Catholic Education an Irish Schools Trust network operating across south Dublin.

The school's own welcome page describes CEIST values of promoting spiritual and human development, quality teaching and learning, respect for every person, community and being just and responsible. McManus leads Sancta Maria College within that shared trust framework, in the heart of Rathfarnham.

15. Kathy Mullen

Principal, St Fintan's High School

Kathy Mullen is Principal of St Fintan's High School in Sutton, an all-boys Edmund Rice school set on the coastline overlooking Dublin Bay. She leads a school that makes direct use of its coastal setting for learning in Geography, Science, Biology and PE.

The school runs an annual Darkness into Light Walk from Sutton towards sunrise at Howth Harbour and offers more than 12 competitive sports on its own grounds. Mullen leads a school where location and programme are closely tied together.

16. Deirdre Nolan

Principal, Kylemore College

Deirdre Nolan is Principal of Kylemore College in Ballyfermot, a co-educational post-primary school that has served the area since 1965. She leads a school built around a stated aim of building on success while continuing to aim for excellence, in the heart of Dublin 10.

More than sixty years of continuous operation in the same community sits behind Nolan's current leadership. The school explicitly frames its identity around that long local history alongside its present-day curriculum and extracurricular offer for students and families.

17. Senan Nolan

Principal, Firhouse Community College

Senan Nolan is Principal of Firhouse Community College in Dublin 24, a co-educational school under the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board that first opened its doors to the community in 1982. He leads a college built around a Year Head and Class Tutor pastoral care system for every student group.

The college partners with the Trinity Access Programme, helping students from the local area access third-level study. Nolan's leadership connects more than four decades of local schooling in Firhouse to a specific, current progression pathway for students moving on from school.

18. Sinead Nolan

Principal, Mount Anville Secondary School

Sinead Nolan is Principal of Mount Anville Secondary School in Dublin 14, a Sacred Heart girls' school whose motto, "In Te Confido", centres a personal relationship with Christ. She leads a school explicitly built around academic excellence alongside personal and faith development for every student.

The school describes a long tradition of nurturing young women into confident, capable leaders, a description that sits directly behind Nolan's current role. Her leadership continues that Sacred Heart tradition in one of south Dublin's established girls' schools.

19. Karol Sadleir

Principal, Pobalscoil Neasain

Karol Sadleir is Principal of Pobalscoil Neasain in Baldoyle, a co-educational school that has served its local community for over 40 years. She leads a school guided by the values of meas, diograis and dea-chroi, respect, commitment and good heart, values the school states guide it in everything it does.

The school describes itself as co-educational and inclusive from the beginning, with every student "equally welcome and equally valued". Sadleir's leadership sits directly on that founding commitment to inclusion across four decades of the school's history in Baldoyle.

20. Louise Stenson

Principal, St Louis High School, Rathmines

Louise Stenson is the newly appointed Principal of St Louis High School in Rathmines, a girls' school founded by the St Louis Sisters in 1913. She leads the school in succession to outgoing principal Cliona Mc Donough, continuing more than a century of the same site's use.

The school won a Green Schools Flag for Global Citizenship Energy and a WorldWise Global Schools Passport for its work on global citizenship education. Stenson takes on a school with a recent record of recognised sustainability and citizenship practice.

21. Helen Tobin

Principal, Portmarnock Community School

Helen Tobin is Principal of Portmarnock Community School, a co-educational school built by the Department of Education and opened in 1979 on Dublin's northside coast. She leads a school under joint patronage of the Archbishop of Dublin, the Loreto Sisters and Dublin's education and training board.

That three-way trusteeship is unusual even within Dublin's varied patronage landscape, and it shapes the school's stated commitment to religious, social, physical and intellectual growth for every student. Tobin's leadership sits at the centre of that shared trusteeship model in Portmarnock.

What These Leaders Show Us About Secondary School Leadership in Dublin

Across these twenty-one profiles, a few patterns are genuinely visible rather than assumed.

The first is longevity. Several of these schools measure their history in decades rather than years: over 160 years at Synge Street CBS, more than a century at Santa Sabina Dominican College and St Louis High School, and more than 60 years at Kylemore College. Leading a Dublin secondary school often means stepping into an institution with a long memory, not building something from scratch.

The second is shared trusteeship. Community and comprehensive schools such as Portmarnock Community School operate under joint patronage arrangements that combine a diocese, a religious order and an education and training board in a single governance structure. Principals in these settings are managing more than one set of expectations at once.

The third is that physical investment keeps happening. CBC Monkstown Park's multi-million euro capital plan shows that even long-established schools are still building for the next generation of students, not simply maintaining what already exists.

The fourth is a genuine mix of scale and setting, from an inner-city school metres from St Stephen's Green to a coastal school built around Dublin Bay and Howth Harbour. Dublin's secondary sector is not one type of school repeated; it is a genuinely varied set of communities, each with its own current leader.

None of this amounts to a single conclusion about what makes a good Dublin school leader. It does suggest that continuity, shared governance and ongoing investment are recurring realities of the job, whichever school a Principal happens to lead.

What Good Leadership Makes Clear

When I work with leadership teams, I ask them to say what good looks like in words other people can use. That simple discipline matters in schools because students, staff and families all need to understand what the culture is asking of them.

The leaders in this list work in different settings, but clarity still matters in every one of them. A clear purpose helps a long-established school honour its history while making good decisions for the people in front of it now.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many schools are included here?

This article includes 21 secondary schools from across County Dublin. It is a focused selection rather than a complete directory.

Does this list rate or compare Dublin's schools against each other?

No. This is an introduction, not a competition. No claim is made about exam results, fees, facilities or overall quality. Choosing a school is a personal decision that depends on far more than any single list can capture.

What kinds of schools are represented?

The selection includes voluntary secondary schools, community and comprehensive schools, and independent colleges. It also includes girls' schools, boys' schools and co-educational schools.

What is the difference between a voluntary secondary school and a community school in Dublin?

A voluntary secondary school is typically owned and patroned by a religious trust, such as the Edmund Rice Schools Trust or Loreto Education Trust. A community or comprehensive school is usually under joint patronage involving a diocese, a religious order and an education and training board, and built by the State.

Does this list include primary school principals?

No. This list covers only secondary, or post-primary, school principals across County Dublin. Primary school leadership in Dublin is a separate and much larger group of people, and it sits well outside the scope of this particular directory, which stays focused on post-primary education.

Conclusion

These 21 leaders serve schools with different histories, structures and communities. Their work ranges from preserving long traditions to guiding new facilities, wider access and changing student needs.

The variety is the point. There is no single model for leading a Dublin secondary school, but clarity, care and a strong sense of purpose remain valuable in every setting.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based leadership consultant, keynote speaker and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. He works with schools, corporates and nonprofits around the world. To enquire about a keynote, workshop or facilitated leadership session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

CLARITY