School doesn’t have to be boring, as proved by the talented students of Boherbue Comprehensive School in Co Cork.Giving the cast of Glee a run for their money, they made an 18-minute music video that saw a troupe of 400 sing and dance their way through the school. It also features a cameo from GAA player and past-pupil Donncha O’Connor, an Irish language rendition of Avicii’s Wake Me Up, and plenty of farming fun.
School doesn’t have to be boring, as proved by the talented students of Boherbue Comprehensive School in Co Cork.
Giving the cast of Glee a run for their money, they made an 18-minute music video that saw a troupe of 400 sing and dance their way through the school. It also features a cameo from GAA player and past-pupil Donncha O’Connor, an Irish language rendition of Avicii’s Wake Me Up, and plenty of farming fun.
The video was made to celebrate the school’s 40th anniversary. When brainstorming ways to celebrate the landmark, Lorraine Heelan pitched the idea of making a video with its stars lip-synching songs while performing.
Lorraine, who is an agricultural science teacher, says it wasn’t difficult to find students to take part.
“Those who didn’t appear on screen were making posters and helping behind the scenes. It was a group effort. Seeing how happy they were going to school was amazing. ”
After enlisting the help of fellow teachers Kevin Roche, Aoife Moynihan and Rebecca Enright, rehearsals began in earnest.
“It was an insane five weeks – the video completely took over our lives,” says Lorraine.
“We practised during lunch and after school and had to plan a route through the school for filming. But in fairness to the students, they worked very hard and didn’t let up once during the five weeks. The principal, Mary O’Keeffe, was also very supportive, as was the vice-principal, DJ McSweeney.”
The video was filmed and produced by Leo and Noreen Fitzgerald from Music Row studios. It took three days to film, with 14 hours of footage being shot during this time.
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The first scene shows former teachers Gerry Couglan, Peg Fitzgerald and Marie O’Leary return to the school only to be greeted by pandemonium in the corridors. In the end, they conclude that: “The place hasn’t changed – if anything it’s a bit worse.”
Lorraine also made a quick appearance in the video, lip-synching and dancing to Lulu’s Shout with Kevin, Aoife and Rebecca all donning school uniforms.
The video received 3,000 views on the first day it was uploaded to YouTube and is currently edging towards the 40,000 mark.
Lorraine is delighted with the response, as are the school’s students.
“We’re all delighted with the response,” she says. “The kids will never forget this. They were all so proud of their part – big or small.
“But we won’t be trying it again,” she adds with a laugh. “We were nearly dead from it all.”
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Search for Boherbue on
YouTube.com to see the video in full. CL
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