Picture credit: Sarah Louise Bennett (EBU)

On Tuesday, Ireland did not reach the Grand Final of Eurovision for the eighth time in the past decade. Speaking to Ray D’Arcy from Liverpool, the country’s head of delegation Michael Kealy explained the misfortune of the nation and Wild Youth’s non-qualification.

Many on the Emerald Isle pitied the poor result, especially as the country used to be one of the best achieving in the contest’s history. But in the past twenty years, the country has only managed to reach the left-hand side of the scoreboard twice. 

“It feels like an annual Groundhog Day”, Michael Kealy stated after receiving his condolences from Ray D’Arcy on the radio.

Michael Kealy on Wild Youth’s non-qualification

Unlike other years, there was more noise surrounding the Irish misfortune.

Following their non-qualification, Wild Youth shared a somewhat controversial Instagram story by Irish singer-songwriter RuthAnne — who has written songs for the likes of Niall Horan, Bebe Rhexa and Westlife — stating that she did not know what Ireland could do next. The text on RuthAnne’s story was “Is it just political at this point?”. 

This Instagram story being the only thing the band posted following the semi-final resulted in annoyance among Eurovision fans. This was reignited again after lead singer Conor O’Donohoe wrote in a now retracted Instagram post: “(…) But the truth is they never give ireland a chance, sorry if we let you down.”

Commenting on the aftermath of Wild Youth’s performance, head of delegation Michael Kealy said on RTÉ Radio 1:

“We all got in the bus back to our hotel and then we kinda had a round in the bar. We had a late night drink and a lot of the family and friends of the band were over. It is quite an emotional thing.”

“It is like a lot of time and effort. It’s a lot of emotional capital on our Eurovision effort each year. It’s devastating we don’t get through to the final.”

The Irish act received a lot of critique, with some questioning the song, whereas others focused on the vocals (or lack thereof) and the costumes. 

“Conor had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do. He wanted that gold look. He wanted to wear a sparkling gold outfit.”

“[Of course, I could advise him], but it is not my job to impose my artistic vision on them. My job is just to help them realise their artistic vision.”

Ireland in Eurovision 2024: A new national final?

Ray D’Arcy told Michael Kealy that on the famous call-in radio show Liveline, there was a consensus that Ireland had to move away from selecting their entry on the long-time talk show The Late Late Show. Michael agreed, but said that the decision was not up to him.

The Late Late Show has served us well as it has been the only vehicle of a sufficient scale that we can do to be honest. It’s very limited because of its scale. It’s pretty much the best thing that we can do in that studio, you know. One of the things that I always say, and I’m not going to win any popularity contests for saying it, but RTÉ has been chronically underfunded.”

“It shows to us particularly when going to put on entertainment shows. I think we make the best use of facilities.”

“When it comes to entertainment, you need a scale to make it look as impressive as a show that you would see in other European countries. The truth is: our facilities at RTÉ aren’t sufficient to mount shows like that. [Ray], you’ve been to stations all over Europe the same way that I have and you see the facilities that they have.”

“Finland is a country, suppose, of a similar population size, but they have much more modern studio facilities.” 

Meanwhile, Ireland’s last qualifier, singer-songwriter Ryan O’Shaughnessy commented in a string of tweets on the country’s misfortunes. He states that the country should take the same direction of the United Kingdom and outsource its selection to record labels. 

Do you agree with the comments from Michael Kealy about Wild Youth and their non-qualification? What do you think about Ireland’s chance to turn the tide at Eurovision 2024? Let us know in the comments down below!

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Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago

I imagine next year ireland will send in the tumbling paddies or something of this calibre – more nonsense to follow

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago

This was an ABSOLUTE disaster – An Indy band who have had some really great songs previously are sent to Eurovision with this dogs dinner of a daft song “we are one” Yes indeed- one pile of rubbish. The selection process is also a dogs dinner – We had wild youth, a woman called Connolly who wrote a song in her bedroom during lockdown, two rappers, Jonny rotten (selected only because he was Jonny rotten)! And another singer called Leila Jane singing a song called Wild which wasn’t a bad song except she was the wrong voice and singer for… Read more »

Elina
Elina
1 year ago

I’m a Finnish lady permanently living in the UK, and I have to saythat the song was good and they should be proud of it. What ut me off voting for them was firstly the music video, not sure why but the golden bags covering their heads just irked me a bit. In the show it seemed really low energy from the singer, he just seemed to casually strut/walk to places and the microphone kept being away from his face so I wasn’t sure if his band or a backup singer was filling the vocals. Compare to let say Australia,… Read more »

F@b
F@b
1 year ago

I feel really sorry for Ireland. The last two years, the songs were good but the costumes were so weird. I also think that the new rule (televote only for the semifinals) is not that good for some countries. I really hoped they would qualify for this British final… Lots of Love to Wild Youth.

Mike Ahern
Mike Ahern
1 year ago

A big problem with selecting the song on the Late Late Show is the demographic of people who watch it. It’s a TV show designed by middle-aged people for middle-aged people at 9 on a Friday night. Young people generally don’t watch it so it stands to reason why a song that sounds like early 90s U2 was chosen.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Ahern

Youth doesn’t matter here, we live in an aging world where the average age is getting closer to middle-aged

Mike Ahern
Mike Ahern
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Maybe middle-aged is being too generous and I should just say people over 55. The Late Late Show format means that the Irish equivalent of Käärijä could enter and not have a hope of winning.

Jay
Jay
1 year ago

It was a bad choice this year

Jake
Jake
1 year ago

My favorite part about when broadcasters/heads of delegations make excuses and lay blame for poor showings is that they NEVER EVER say “yep, we need to look internally–WE are to blame”…every good coach always takes the blame after a hard defeat, but the list of who Ireland blames is often long and never includes RTÉ or Mr Kealy himself. Here is the reality: –Wild Youth’s song peaked at #93 in Ireland so if Ireland is not supporting the song–why would the rest of Europe –The Late Late Show being the platform to present the songs is not an excuse–even Czechia… Read more »

pancakes
pancakes
1 year ago

send sophie lennon

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  pancakes

Packing

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
1 year ago

ESC is a contest, and contests are always tough on those who don’t do well. Those acts going into ESC should always try for the best result and be prepared for the worst result. The ESC audience and juries have changing musical tastes as time goes on; of course they do. Ireland will do well again once one of their entries win over both the audience and the juries. One advantage Ireland has is it’s beautiful traditional music, which I know is a tired thing to fall back on, but it is a USP for Ireland that it has in… Read more »

Jonas
Jonas
1 year ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

I think Irish trad music is reliant on being live. Which rules it out, sadly.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonas

Agreed. I have said for years that if I were chosen to run the Eurovision Song Contest (a life-long dream), it would be on two conditions: Bringing back live music, and improved protection of children in the JESC.

ThePointsMan
ThePointsMan
1 year ago

Come on, stop supplying excuses: just look at what Czechia, Slovenia, Georgia, Malta, Armenia did. The only thing I can see here is lack of willingness and enthusiasm from the part of Ireland.

BiCHOTA
BiCHOTA
1 year ago
Reply to  ThePointsMan

Georgia and Malta didn’t make it through, though

HarpyDarper
HarpyDarper
1 year ago

It’s been said before, but Wild Youth have talent and better songs, so it’s frustrating they waste their biggest opportunity with a boring cliched song.
And that outfit- during all the fittings/rehearsals, was the camel toe never pointed out to him?
Big question though, are RTE cheapskates? I’ve heard they put all their money on their stars wages and trim back everything else. I want a modern and slick NF in a venue like the Helix, but doing the bare minimum on the Late Late Show seems to be cheap and get decent viewers that they’ll never bother.

HarpyDarper
HarpyDarper
1 year ago
Reply to  HarpyDarper

Also, as a result of this flop, it seems all those horrible internet people will bring up them firing their choreographer over the trans matters, as if he was going to give them excellent staging and would have gone through otherwise!

Dave
Dave
1 year ago

Unfortunately, I don’t think Ireland is the only country that feels like this right now. You can add Malta, Latvia, San Marino, Georgia, and probably also those countries who have decided to stop wasting money and quit the contest altogether since this year. Eliminating juries from semifinals hasn’t helped. Having some production core group decide in which slots the countries sing, thereby maximising the chances of the favourites and totally killing the chances of others doesn’t help either. There you go. Malta this year had been anointed the “death-slotted” since the running order came out, irrelevant of how good or… Read more »

BiCHOTA
BiCHOTA
1 year ago
Reply to  Dave

Downvote him all you want but he’s right, as these results are only discouraging for alternative artists

Sometimes
Sometimes
1 year ago

I’m one of those rare people who actually likes the song.

But what bothered me, was the performance. He pretty much stopped singing at second half of the song. Choruses came just from the track, he didnt even try to pretend to sing, he just walked around, microphone towards floor.

Also he looked quite nervous/pissed off at start of the song.

MartyMcCu
MartyMcCu
1 year ago

On stage, the lead singer really looked uncomfortable, and he appeared not to enjoy himself. A good song and it is still on my playlist, but the live performance was weaker and less appealing to others. The gold outfit didn’t work either. They should ditch the late late show format, and the people who present it, either go internally or do something really different. Ireland has tremendous potential; they just need to get their act together. Listening back you really felt this is not a qualifier!

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
1 year ago

Such a poor loser’s attitude from the Irish artist and one that they’re going to regret putting out there. They should never have been put it in the position in the first place but, still, no excuse for going down such a stupid route when your song/performance was that poor. And obviously, Michael Kealy is once again out there blaming everyone else when, in any other line of work, overseeing a catalogue of failure to the extent that he has, would clearly have him removed. If I was an Irish Eurovision fan, I would be completely embarrassed by everything from… Read more »

Martin
Martin
1 year ago

I still believe that Ireland one day will be the Eurovision powerhouse or at least decent performer as it used to be

Darren
Darren
1 year ago
Reply to  Martin

Someone’s optimistic haha
Unfortunately I can’t see that.

Martin
Martin
1 year ago
Reply to  Darren

You never know

Robert
Robert
1 year ago

And also.. dare to be different! Connely was different, Midnight summer night would’ve/could’ve stood out more and been a moment.. if the no juries semi stays countries have to think differently

The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
1 year ago

The fandom immediately wrote off their song.

The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
1 year ago

I actually really liked the staging and the outfits. The problem isn’t these things but the song and the strong semi it was in. Also, the UK wasn’t voting. Last year’s song DEFINITELY should have qualified. RTE need to scrap the late late show and introduce a new format where we get more high quality songs to choose from.

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago

Doesn’t matter about UK voting – if a song is good enough it doesn’t need one country to hold it up

Roo
Roo
1 year ago

Always blame politics when you performed a boring song badly. My friend called it a children saving the world song and he hates those kind of songs. Its like someone thought “oh Eurovision, lets sing a song about peace and unity”

Roo
Roo
1 year ago
Reply to  Roo

I forgot to add how can you blame politics when the contest in being held in the United Kingdom??? Shouldn’t that itself be reason enough for the Irish to have tried harder?

Jonas
Jonas
1 year ago
Reply to  Roo

Why? Ireland is not in the UK, and not even part of the Commonwealth. I don’t understand your reasoning. Not to mention all the EU issues.

58 Points (JE)
1 year ago

He didn’t sing half the choruses. His outfit didn’t fit or flatter him. It was obvious the band wasn’t delivering the massive backing vocals on the track. Explain how countries like Estonia, Moldova, Cyprus do better than Ireland? The broadcaster. Tabhair dó TG4 é – give it to TG4 (the Irish language public broadcaster).

The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
1 year ago
Reply to  58 Points (JE)

I actually thought the outfits were an improvement.

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  58 Points (JE)

Those countries have borders with other European countries and have a diaspora nearby – that’s why –
You cannot say in years Gone by that Irelands songs we so bad they didn’t deserve qualify ? I’ve listened to some absolute awful senseless forgetful songs that have and the only reason they qualified is public vote from nationals voting for the home country from elsewhere

Möhrant
Möhrant
1 year ago

It was an okay performance, but unfortunately the song just got left behind in the semi final crowd, a common occurrence for Irish acts. There are other countries with similar poor results at Eurovision (Georgia, Latvia, North Macedonia and Montenegro) so I don’t think they can blame politics here. There’s always next year and hopefully they’ll try something new to make the final!

Samo
Samo
1 year ago
Reply to  Möhrant

No, no and no. It was not an okay performance. Countries that actually want to achieve something in Eurovision need to have some healthy amount of self-criticism. The performance was bad in just about every way: The song was bland, their outfits were ridiculous and the lead singer didn’t even sing for half of the song. The problem with Ireland (and previously BBC, and also some other broadcasters) is that they keep creating this echo chamber where everyone pretends that everything is alright, except that “everyone’s against us” because of pOLitiCS. And then they don’t do anything to improve, because… Read more »

Vlad48
Vlad48
1 year ago
Reply to  Samo

France, after a string of bottom-of-the-right scoreboard placements, finally decided to stop blaming politics. They wiped their tears, put the knife between the teeth and decided it was time to play the Eurovision game. And not be fooled by it.

So, since 2016, France went to the left side of the board 4 times on 6. Sure, France didin’t become a powerhouse such Ukraine or Sweden. But at least, Eurofans seem to consider France like a serious country since then. And the Hexagone got a top-3 placement thanks to Barbara Pravi. A feat France was waiting for 30 years…

Martin
Martin
1 year ago
Reply to  Vlad48

France has always been my favourite country in the ESC, even when they placed so low…

Vlad48
Vlad48
1 year ago
Reply to  Martin

Great ! What’s your expectations for La Zarra ?

Azuro
Azuro
1 year ago

I love Ireland, but they just don’t send interesting acts or songs.
The last one was Jedward, whether you love them or hate them, you remember them.

Ryan only got through in 2018 let’s be honest because of the same sex dancers and story, the song was just background music to the cute story.

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Azuro

Very true – if wild youth had worn massive heels and wigs from
1970s and false hairy chests the vote would have been different lol

Vjera Brdar
Vjera Brdar
1 year ago

Bless his lost soul for not even trying to look like he was singing. Also, camel toe is never a good look, especially on a guy.

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Vjera Brdar

Lol ?

Raphael
Raphael
1 year ago

The song was just pretty bland and didn’t stand out. I get why they didn’t go to the final. I’m sorry Ierland but this wasn’t it.
They seem like nice people and good singers though. 🙂

Gmisk
Gmisk
1 year ago

He is utterly delusional, needs to be fired. RTE should let another channel have a go.

Robert
Robert
1 year ago

They need to go internal door a while. Worked for others like the Netherlands, maybe not this year but still it gave us succesful years.. figure out what you wanna send and tell on stage.. I generally like Irelands entries like in recent years 22, Maps and for instance Wild Youths song but it needs to stand out more.. every year I’m rooting for Ireland mainly bevause of their rich Eurovision history and those glory days need to come back ASAP

BiCHOTA
BiCHOTA
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert

They need to take a break, they’ve tried internal selections before

ANDREW BROWN
ANDREW BROWN
1 year ago

Told you see earlier report Iceland would fail for same reason as Ireland. Repeat repeat ppp~power. Add to that awful stage show.

Who??
Who??
1 year ago

Should’ve learn from Czechia and Finland their quality getting improve year by year. Even Lithuania National Final started to get a lot of good quality songs this year. Or they should learn from Isreal from NQ in a row, now they sending bop start from golden boy.

Samo
Samo
1 year ago

What should Ireland do? How about sending someone who will actually sing the song next year?

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Samo

They should send Enya yodelling all night on a keyboard euronocco flow – a winner

Epicurean
Epicurean
1 year ago

It’s not the staging. Nor the gold look.

It’s the song. Simple as.

UK had the same excuses of not doing well until they actually send a good song and performance with Sam Ryder.

Marijana
Marijana
1 year ago

Sorry but this is the same as in Germany. It’s not about the country being disliked or something, the song is just not competitive enough. In Germany, they keep saying there were political reasons which is sinply not true. Same with Ireland

Sally
Sally
1 year ago

If Ireland doesn’t really want to win because they can’t afford to host – then they should send a delegation to Lithuania to learn how to pick songs and artists that likely won’t win but will do well enough to not leave anyone embarrassed. And also start putting aside some money so if something accidentally catches fire you will be able to host.

Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
1 year ago
Reply to  Sally

Lithuania isn’t the Eurovision powerhouse you think it is.

Sally
Sally
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

I didn’t say it was a powerhouse of any kind. But they do know how to send respectable but not too threatening acts each year.

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Sally

Sound like a cat being strangled

Roo
Roo
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

They qualify regularly and don’t embarrass themselves. Sally never claimed Lithuania was a Eurovision powerhouse. Just a decent solid performer.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

Lithuania is in a run of consistently good entries.
Their national selection process really works for them but I’d imagine it’s one of the hardest formats to replicate.

Lera
Lera
1 year ago
Reply to  Sally

Besides, they could always refuse to hostif they won. I’m sure some of the hypothetical runner-ups would gladly host on Ireland’s behalf.

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Sally

Really ?? Lithuania ?? songs are atrocious

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago

Not justifying them, but the fandom were no saints, it literally made their ESC experience the worst one possible. Come on, did someone really expected them to be happy and super grateful?

Okan
Okan
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Why is it fandoms job to support a bad song?

Do you think they had a worse experience than Blanka for example? She was hated and ridiculed but improved a lot and managed to become a finalist. Ireland is just using excuses

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago
Reply to  Okan

It’s okay not to like their song, but that’s not the same as harassing, bashing or booing them, which the fandom did.
And don’t get me started with that spoiled brat Blanka, bc she didn’t deserve to make it through.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago

Not justifying Conor’s Instagram rant, but the fandom was very rude to the band and rushed to write them off, the fandom practically made their ESC experience the worst one possible xd

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

On another note, I think Ireland isn’t taking this in the best way, there’s no introspection nor accountability. The best for Ireland would be to pull out for a while and come back with a new approach and delegation, as some mentioned below.

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Best televoting stops for a while too

The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
1 year ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Many people immediately put the song in their bottom three. Meanwhile, my parents on the night didn’t mind it!

Mario
Mario
1 year ago

His trousers looked so painful at the front, I couldn’t concentrate at the song…

Voilà monsieur
Voilà monsieur
1 year ago

In my opinion, Ireland should take a few years out and come back with a completely new approach and delegation. If it wasn’t for Ryan O’Shaughnessy in 2018, Ireland would be on their 9th consecutive NQ streak.

Something needs to change because Ireland’s track record this century (especially this last decade) has been nothing short of abysmal.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago

I agree with you, even though I think at least Playing With Numbers and That’s Rich didn’t deserve to be left behind

Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
1 year ago

Why the hell is Ireland not sending something Celtic-sounding and in Irish? Ireland has beautiful ethnic music.

Sally
Sally
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

Would be a nice reset.

Nils
Nils
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

Yes, and everyone either likes or loves Ireland’s cultural heritage. Their problems really could be fixed within a blink of an eye.

Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
1 year ago
Reply to  Nils

Exactly. They could easily become the Moldova of northern/western Europe and qualify every year with something ethnic.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago
Reply to  Nils

Not necessarily, they’d leave such an entry behind in favor of entries designed for Eurovision

The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

All the songs are passed up by RTE or are too weak.

Lera
Lera
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

Exactly! Both the UK and Ireland could be sending such interesting ethic songs. Celtic-style music sounds and feels truly magical. Such a wasted potential.

Lera
Lera
1 year ago
Reply to  Lera

Lol, I meant “ethnic.”

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Karenina

No they don’t – it appeals to middle aged voters this doesn’t appeal to cha cha cha voters of Finland

Edgar
Edgar
1 year ago

Ireland came 4th in Junior Eurovision 2022. Just proves they can do well. Just rethink your strategy and learn from your own success at Junior Eurovision?

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
1 year ago
Reply to  Edgar

Good point.

Karl
Karl
1 year ago

They should send Shuhada’ Sadaqat next year. They will not only be guaranteed a place in the final but also a guaranteed top 5 finish in the grand final.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago
Reply to  Karl

She would crush Moroccan televote!

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  Karl

Is that a brand of weed killer ?

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago

The luck of the Irish has not graced the eurovision stage for a long time. It is long overdue for Ireland to to reassess what they’re doing wrong and get on the right path.

Nils
Nils
1 year ago

What kind of political agenda is it supposed to be, when basically every country but Ireland manages to at least have some degree of success? As a German, I couldn’t say a single thing about Irish policies. I only recently saw their PM for the very first time – in an US late night show, because Joe Biden was visiting. Why would anyone hold a grudge against Ireland, of all places? Get real! They put too little effort into their selection process. ‘We are one’ couldn’t have been more bland if the songwriters tried. And Conor appeared to have zero… Read more »

The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
1 year ago
Reply to  Nils

It’s more the fact that the UK and nations that know Ireland well weren’t voting

BeepBoop
BeepBoop
1 year ago

There’s some amazing Irish music out there… it is a pity we don’t geet to see that at Eurovision.

ben r
ben r
1 year ago

Brooke absolutely deserved to qualify last year, but Wild Youth’s song was just so bland. They should’ve internally selected a better one after winning the Irish preselection

Orla Burke
Orla Burke
1 year ago
Reply to  ben r

Brooks song wAs abysmal

Kristian
Kristian
1 year ago

My thoughts after the performance:
1- What! EBU allows all vocals to be pre-recorded!
2- What a disturbing mismatch between the song and the outfit.
3- Oh, they seem to forget that they needed a staging.
4- Descending the stairs on the stage the way you would do while singing a ballad, but you are singing a sort of rock song.

Elina
Elina
1 year ago
Reply to  Kristian

Actually I read an article about Finland’s entry and they said pre recorded tracks are not allowed but you can have backing singers either on stage or off it. If you have backing singers off stage they count to the total number of people allowed per act and when they sing the sound is somehow looped through the lead singers mic. The person helping Finland in the back is the vocal coach for their national selection show.

fever
fever
1 year ago

There were some misfortunes for Ireland. For example, I do believe Brooke last year was robbed. I am still impressed how much she succeeded to improve from her NF to SF. It was a very competitive year, and unfortunately, she was NQ (but, please come back some year, dear Brooke!) But for Wild Youth, I am not sure. The staging was okay, but the back vocals were so, so heavy that I can barely tell how much they were actually singing. Let alone the fact that the song itself is generic and average – so as many former Irish entries.… Read more »

The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
1 year ago
Reply to  fever

Brooke DEFINITELY deserved to qualify last year.

Darren
Darren
1 year ago

This is the first year ever that I’ve seen some kind of backlash here at home regarding our NQ streak. I’d agree with Ryan too, the difference between his song and everything since is night and day. Song writing camps, stop outsourcing to Sweden, who our closest rivals anyway, release the song internationally 3-4 months before, better international promotion, target social media, a bigger budget. Personally I’d love to see RTÉ just stop, but if they are to continue with our participation, then I’d like to see the above. But until then nothing will change. Wild Youth where boring and… Read more »

Devilchu
Devilchu
1 year ago
Reply to  Darren

As a Swede here, I really wish there was a rule change in Eurovision saying that the songwriting and artist must be from the country they’re representing. That might seem unfair for smaller countries like San Marino but I believe there’s good music to share in any country. I really hate that we have so many Swedish songwriters/dancers/choreographers meddling in other countries entries. Believe it or not but we don’t want to see Swedenvision either. I’d much rather hear music from every country. Something that truly represents them. I’m tired of seeing G:son, Peter Boström and Jimmy ‘Joker’ Jansson everywhere.… Read more »

Efthymios
Efthymios
1 year ago

Consider sending something GOOD and Gaelic, infused with rock next year and I won’t even need to be on a search for my winner for too long.

There’s no bias against Ireland at all. It’s only about the quality of their latest songs and their live performances.

Kiwicelt
Kiwicelt
1 year ago
Reply to  Efthymios

as a scotsman I’d love the UK to do the same

zach
zach
1 year ago

they’re entries have just not been good, that’s really all it is

Joey
Joey
1 year ago

First and foremost, Ukraine held their selection in a train station basement….funding is not the problem. Ireland has confused working hard with being deserving of qualification. It comes down to 1) song choice, 2) ability to perform that song live, and 3) presenting it in an interesting and entertaining way on stage. They always manage to miss the mark on at least two of these. Most of all, we know they’re capable of more… Doesn’t matter if it’s an internal selection or National final….it’s whether or not the final product is actually competitive in 202X. Ask for help and listen.… Read more »

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago
Reply to  Joey

I ain’t reading all that, I’m glad for you or sorry that that happened