The Mid-West School for the Deaf was founded in 1979. Until then the only option available to Deaf and Hard of Hearing students was residential schooling in Dublin.

Parents were very anxious that a day school for the Deaf would be accessible to children in the Mid-West region. A parents association was established and the setting up of the school went ahead without departmental sanction. The running costs of the school were met by the Parent’s Association, for the first year, through fundraising. In 1980 the school was sanctioned by the Department of Education.

A long campaign prevailed to provide a suitable building for the education of deaf children. Eventually, in 1998 President Mary McAleese opened a new purpose-built school in Our Lady’s of Lourdes School grounds at Rosbrien, Limerick.

The opening of this school was the result of tremendous work by parents, staff, Boards of Management, and Parents Associations over many years.
Having achieved a new building the school then set out to develop further, by putting appropriate programs in place for post-primary deaf children, followed by a pre-school for the deaf.

The school currently caters for early intervention pupils, primary and post-primary Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in the Mid-West. Students are taught orally or through sign language, where appropriate.