Happy St Patrick’s day! To celebrate the Emerald Isle, we wrote this article about the journey of Ireland in Eurovision through the years. Grab a Guinness and enjoy!
Ireland is a country that holds (or at least used to hold) many Eurovision records. Until 2023 it held the most important record of having the most victories in the contest. However, after Loreen’s victory last year in Liverpool, Sweden caught up with them and both countries share the record of 7 Eurovision victories. Also Johnny Logan was the first person to win the competition twice, another record that was broken again by Loreen. However they still hold the record of having the place and venue that hosted the contest the most times. Dublin has hosted Eurovision on 6 occasions, 3 of those times happening at Point Theatre (1994, 1995, 1997). Ireland is also the only country to have won the contest three consecutive times (1992, 1993 and 1994).
But let’s take things from the beginning. Ireland made their Eurovision debut in 1965, and they count 58 participations in total (including this year’s entry). They only missed two contests since debut, in 1983 and 2002. Their first victory came in 1970 with Dana and her song ‘All Kinds of Everything’. Johhny Logan brought Ireland its second victory in 1980 with his song ‘What’s Another Year?’ and he became a Eurovision legend by winning the contest again in 1987 with his song ‘Hold Me Now’.
However Ireland’s most successful decade in Eurovision is the 90s. They celebrated 4 victories over the space of 5 years! These include Linda Martin with her song ‘Why Me’ (written by Johnny Logan so giving him a total of 3 victories- 2 as a performer and 1 as a writer) in 1992, Niamh Kavanagh with ‘In Your Eyes’ in1993, Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan with ‘Rock n Roll Kids’ in 1994 and Eimear Quinn with ‘The Voice’ in 1996.
However in the 21st century Ireland’s Eurovision journey faced some unlucky moments. Between 2000-2010 they finished only once in the top 10, and that was in 2006 with Brian Kennedy and ‘Every Song Is A Cry For Love’, which finished 10th. Their best result in the most recent year’s was in 2011 with Jedward and their song ‘Lipstick’, which finished 8th . However since then Ireland hasn’t qualified to the final 8 times.
This year Ireland will be represented by Bambie Thug and the song ‘Doomsday Blue’, performing in the first half of semi-final 1. Will Bambie be able to give Ireland an 8th win so they can get their Eurovision crown back? We wish them luck!
