Mature students Guy Killingbeck and Liam Padden are celebrating after gaining top grade results in Irish.

The pair both recorded A grades in AS-levels in the language and now plan to qualify for a full A-level in the subject next year.

Guy, 43, whose grandmother is Irish, said: “We applied locally to a number of schools to sit the examination and found it very difficult to find one that would let us take it.”

Liam’s parents both hail from Ireland. The 41-year-old said: “We thought we might have to go to Belfast to sit the exam but an examiner flew to Leeds Bradford Airport.”

Tutor Joe Sheeran said: “There is a history of the Irish language in Bradford but it’s not common in the city any more.”