Watch: Cork teen rescues 'screaming' sheep trapped in rising water

She said the 17-year-old became concerned and investigated the noise.

"Eventually he discovered it was a sheep trapped in rocks and water and without thinking he stripped off and saved that sheep’s life. His father said it was amazing to see," Andrea said.

Joshua's dad, Matthew, quickly recorded a video of his son guiding the distressed animal through the seawater to safety.

By the video's end, the sheep is seen climbing out of the water onto rocks and moving uphill away from the shore as family friend Michael helped Joshua out of the water.

Andrea said she was proud of her son and wanted to highlight the incident as she feels many teenagers are unfairly judged by the public.

"I’m highlighting this because not every teenager is up to no good as people think. Would love to see him get the recognition he deserves. It has been getting nothing but amazingly positive comments.

"The reaction has been amazing. He has nearly 240,000 views.

My son is a very grounded lad and it was just something he said he couldn’t ignore. He is a very competent swimmer.

Andrea said her husband was on standby to help their son if he got into difficulty in the water.

"My husband was already watching for 20 minutes beforehand as my son could not locate the sheep and if it had got dangerous he would have pulled him out."

Encouraging Joshua from the strand was his younger brother, 10-year-old Max, who is heard asking if the family can visit Ballyhass Lakes in Mallow, Co Cork. After being tagged in the video numerous times on Facebook, Ballyhass Lakes has offered the family a free day at the activity centre.

An obvious animal lover, Andrea said Joshua is also great with the dog that the family recently rescued.

"We rescued a pitbull recently from Cavan and he is amazing with her."