In 1854, there were eleven listed schools in the parish of Ballinalee. Six of the eleven were newly built national schools or pre-existing schools that had come into the National School system that was introduced in the 1930s. These schools were Ballinalee (new), Ballynascraw, Castlebrock (new), Drummeel, Lislea (new), and Lisraghtigan.

In the first twenty years of the National School system, three entirely new schoolhouses were built in the parish, and the Church of Ireland community provided itself with the new schoolhouse in Currycahill under the aegis of the Church Education Society. This also came into the National School system at a later date. Today, by a process that started in 1925, there's only one primary school in the parish, Scoil Samhthann.

In that year, a new school was built in Breaghy, near the parish church, to replace the substandard National Schools in Drummeel and Castlebrock. The new school was named St. Bernard’s and it opened on the 9th of March, 1925. This was the parish’s first experience of amalgamation. The last amalgamation happened in 1970 when St. Bernard’s closed its doors for the last time on the 30th of June, and staff and pupils transferred to Ballinalee National School.

The two-story schoolhouse that housed Ballinalee National School was commandeered in 1920 by Crown forces and was occupied by the Black and Tans until the truce in 1921. It was left in a deplorable condition, and it was not reopened until 1925. In the meantime, school was carried on in what had been the teacher's residence on the France road.

Ballinalee was, in fact, two schools: boys and girls, with separate principals. The girls were upstairs and the boys were on the ground floor. In 1932, despite opposition from the Rev. Manager Father Markey, the two schools were amalgamated and the staff were redeployed. In 1966, because of falling numbers, St. Joseph's Lislea was closed, and staff and pupils were transferred to Ballinalee. This was the parish's first experience of bussing. Seven boys and seventeen girls came from Lislea to Ballinalee.

Father Plunkett built a new school in 1949. This was to replace the two-story schoolhouse on the Granard Rd. that had served the Ballinalee area well for over 100 years. The new school, built by John Collins to the standard Boyd Barrett design (Basil Raymond Boyd-Barrett was the chief schools architect for the OPW), was originally a three-roomed school that lacked running water and flush toilets.

In the course of a major extension in preparation for the amalgamation in 1970, these facilities were included. The last major reconstruction, incorporating the modernization of the classrooms and the provision of a library and function room, was completed in 1986. Further extensions were added to the school during the 1990s.

(Adapted from Holy Trinity Church, Ballinalee. Rededication, 1995.)