Colette Carney has been teaching at Mount Sion boy's school in Waterford for almost 20 years. The focus had always been on academia and sport. Due to the school's small size, they didn't offer music as a subject. Then some of the boys started singing in the halls. And Colette decided that they should have a choir to go to.

Colette told Ryan Tubridy that the boys went through two teachers who said they were "unteachable". But Colette and a couple of others decided to keep going. The problem, she says, was that they would sound great behind closed doors but would lose confidence when performing in public. Colette focused on building them up, especially those who were self-conscious about performing.

"I've been described as Whoopi Goldberg. Sister Act, that's exactly me."

The choir is something of a unifying force.

"I think it's that money doesn't matter, that colour doesn't matter, that what your parents have…it doesn't matter. Because singing, it just goes through all the ages."

This year the boys went to Prague to compete in an international choral competition. They won silver in their category.

"It was as if a gold medal had been placed in each boy's hand. It was just unbelievable, just the power that it gave them and the belief in themselves."

Congratulations to the choir from Mount Sion secondary school Waterford who won silver in their category at the international choral festival in Prague.The 19 boys who are aged between 12 and 18 were among 1,000 young people from all over the world at the Young Prague Festival. Newtown School Waterford Girls choir and the Chamber choir were awarded a silver medal in both their respective competitions in the Prague festival. The boys from Mount Sion CBS entertained the audience with this rapping melody they put together themselves:

Posted by WLR FM on Sunday, March 25, 2018

The future looks bright for Colette and the boys of Mount Sion, with an endorsement in the form of singer-songwriter Don Mescall, who asked if they would record a song with him later this month.

Listen back to the full interview on The Ryan Tubridy Show here.