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Young Killarney students have made the Irish language cool again - as their music video stormed across the internet this week – with almost 350,000 views.

The boys, Transition Year students from St Brendan's College Killarney - The Sem, were amazed at the hugely positive reaction – as their version of British Grime artistStormzy’s ‘Shut Up’ went viral.

Filmed at the school just before the midterm break - the boys took on the style of Stormzy’s own video – which received 81 million views on YouTube earlier this year. The rapper also won Best Grime Act at the 2014 and 2015 MOBO Awards and was named as an artist to look out for in the BBC's influential Sound of 2015 list.

Now all they’re hoping for is that the top music rapper will see it and get in touch, music teacher Niamh O’Connell explained.

“We just need Stormzy to see it now,” Niamh told The Killarney Advertiser this week.

“It would be brilliant if Stormzy acknowledged it.”

The video came about after Irish teacher Jamie Mac Giolla Bhríde came up with the idea of entering the boys into Irish schools competition Ghaelfíseáin do Bliain na Gaeilge 2018.

The idea was to help them to learn Irish in a fun and unconventional way to make the subject interesting, Jamie added.

“I was looking for something to do for Irish class to promote the language,” Jamie said.

“I saw the competition and the boys picked the song. I then translated the song with them.”

Niamh added that the students had plenty of input including choosing words relevant to them in the song – for example changing Mobo Award to Gaisce Award.

They recorded the song in the school’s chapel over two days, then filmed it outside, and edited the final version together.

“They had to be clear, audible, and the rhythm of the song had to be right. The boys are very happy with it. We then put it online and the views exploded. We knew it was good but we didn’t expect such a positive reaction.”