Father Ted is an irreverent, award-winning sitcom from the British Isles. It has a cult following, so much so that a group lodged a petition with the Parliament of Ireland for a song from the program to compete for Ireland at Eurovision.
The satricial song, called “My Lovely Horse,” included memorable lyrics like this: “I want to shower you with sugar lumps, and ride you over fences, polish your hooves every single day and bring you to the horse dentist.”
But sadly Ireland will not see Father Ted travelling to Austria in 2015 as the Irish Parliament has rejected the idea, pointing out that it does not have the musical expertise to make such a decision, or the power to force RTE to follow its suggestion. That answer also confirms that they don’t have sufficient knowledge of Eurovision: You can’t compete with a song released before the September pre-ceding the contest anyway!
Even if Ireland were able to compete with this song, it would be quite controversial within the Catholic community to see Conchita Wurst, a huge supporter of LGBT rights, hand over the trophy to the character of a priest, part of the Catholic church, a religion that recognises marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
The horse is quite lovely though. Let us know your thoughts below! Can satire and a bit of silly take Ireland back to the final?
What we need to represent Ireland at Eurovision is a fantastic singer (no matter how famous they are) and a simple but catchy (something that has the crowd singing along) and well staged song and we could win Eurovision.
By the same token, my new and improved Eirevision has been printed off and now, all I have to do is photocopy my work and send it to RTE.
People of Ireland……
LET’S WIN EUROVISION IN 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DUBLIN 2016 ALL THE WAY.
Let’s send an original (but good) song and a singer with an authentic voice to Eurovision.
Hi Ciaran
RTE would never send ”My Lovely Horse”. We have learned from those mistakes. Plus, if we win in Austria, I think as well as getting drunk to the point of legless, we would also be getting stoned off of our behinds. If I am right, I think that that is a very good possibility.
Stop trying to make us seem backward.
If Ireland were to win in Vienna we’d all be getting blind drunk with joy and when Conchita handed over the trophy I don’t think anyone would bat an eye lid that it was a bearded man in drag handing it over, especially as we gave her 12 points in the first place.
Hi Vlatko You and I are probably the about the only people outside of Albania and Kosovo that watch the Albanian national final. It’s like watching a new wave competition in the Philippines or Indonesia. It is also seriously outdated as far as I am concerned. But back to my national final, I have decided to go 100% PROFESSIONAL jury vote who know what the Eurovision wants. There will be 15 different jury members, all from 15 different countries and they will choose the winner based on the following elements: 1. Vocal Strength live 2. Staging potential 3. Sing along… Read more »
Deven O’Kearney – I live in Croatia and I watch the Albanian NF 🙁
But anyways because of the rubbish Europe votes for I wouldn’t recommend the international Irish NF
Deven, instead of wasting all that paper printing out your thesis at your Dad’s house, why not TRY WRITING A SONG YOURSELF?! It HAS to be easier!
Ireland would have to be crazy to send dead Father Ted…. Hold on a singing corpse on stage would probably be the only way to get other countries interested in the Irish NF. It would only work once though.
Hi Easpag, How’s things? Listen, Do you remember Billy McGuinness’ rant on Eurosong 2014 about getting rid of the text vote. Well that is why I am doing it. Plus, Linda Martin believes that we will only win if our selection process is put back into the hands of the jury and the SMS vote is scrapped. Another thing is and strangely, we do very well in the tele vote generally speaking. But where we go down hill is in the jury vote and I think that we need to focus on our weaknesses and that is to only go… Read more »
@Deven you will never get 15 countries to vote. Even if you were just to get professional juries to vote, 5 countries would be the max.
Also, if you decide to hold a national final, you must include a televote. The public will slam the show unless they get a say in which act is sent to represent them in the ESC.
And in reply to the article, it couldn’t happen anyways. The actor who plays Father Ted is dead now. They’ll hardly dig up his coffin and drag it onto the stage.
Oh, just one more thing, my new idea will be 100% PROFESSIONAL jury voting.
Hi guys, Thanks for your honesty. Maybe I will scale it down to just a final with 12 songs. A bit like Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. But, there will be 15 jury members, all from 15 different countries and they will all be the very best of the very best in their country. As for the venue, I like the idea of the RDS Simmonscourt hosting it, but I also think that the Bord Gais Energy Theatre could fit the bill. Presenter wise, I still want 2 presenters, 1 male and 1 female. I don’t know about you but, that… Read more »
Well, I wanted a nun from Italy and a father from Ireland to participate in an Eurovision held in an austrian airport… but you can’t have everything in life 😛
@Deven I think you missed the point of Robyn’s comment, I can guarantee you that other countries would have no interest in showing another country’s NF, let alone a low budget one from RTE. And while we’re on about the budget, how do you expect RTE to put on a show half as expensive as what you are suggesting? – those world class artists and songwriters would have no intention of working for free and even if RTE did find a way to pay them all, I doubt a lot of them would risk their reputation by possibly failing at… Read more »
@Deven If it did go into production, I think you probably would get good results but and its a big but…RTE have no interest in the Eurovision Song Contest for many reasons…the money being the big issue. And to be honest, I really dont see RTE “trying” at Eurovision anymore until we have lost our record of the most victories. And knowing RTE like I do, if your show was to go into production, RTE would ruin it by still getting judges, singers and song writers from the same talentless pool that they get them already. Personally, I think our… Read more »
Okay. Let’s just hope Sinead Mulvey (2009) returns to Eurovision then.
Well you see Robyn, RTE will contact all of the participating broadcasters and ask them do they want to broadcast the Irish NF and let the viewers and professional juries vote for the entries. Each of the participating broadcasters will have to provide a commentator. Just like ESC. I feel that this way, you can gain international exposure before ESC. It will be very good for promotion by means of TV and radio.
BTW: Albania’s NF is seriously dated. No one outside of Albania will watch it.
Hi Darren
Thanks for your advice man. I am doing this Eirevision project because I care about Eurovision and Ireland. If I didn’t give a rat’s ass about ESC, I would not be printing it off tomorrow. My whole family is very supportive of my idea and do you know something else, I did it all of my own without any help.
In the event that it does go into production, do you think we could see an improvement in Ireland’s ESC results?
Hi Darren
Thanks for your support. But I really want RTE to look my way with this show. I believe that this show could really bring Ireland back to the top of the scoreboard. My Dad told me today, if I think it will work, well then g
If a couple of hot guys in kilts couldn’t bring Ireland into the final, then I don’t know what can.
I am Irish and I never even knew about parliament voting on this!! Every year for about 3 months after Eurovision has ended I always see calls for Ireland to enter a song like this RTE, the government and the Irish public need to wake up and see that we send rubbish to Europe most of the time so obviously it is not going to do well. Since 2000 I can only think of 4 years when Ireland had a good eurovision song (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013) and even then it was still the best of a bad lot,… Read more »
It also shows lack of sitcom knowledge in that “My Lovely Horse” (the bad version) DID make it to Eurovision and got lots of “nul point”, so as to save RTE hosting again in the 1990s!
You see, this is where Eirevision comes into it. Ireland needs to wake up and realise that this ”My Lovely Horse” approach to Eurovision has got to end. I don’t think Ireland can be trusted to select their entry anymore. That is why I have devised the Eirevision Song Contest. Which is a new selection process for Ireland. Here is what I have in mind for RTE: 1. It will have 2 presenters. I have considered JEDWARD as one of the suggestions. 2. It will not have a panel of judges. 3. It will incorporate 6 semi finals, all with… Read more »