Ireland 2018: National Final for Eurovision 2018?

Marty Whelan is the last 19 years the broadcatser of  Eurovision  on behalf of the Irish Television and he was present at the opening of the Bloom 2017 festival at Phoenix Park in Dublin. During his presence at the festival, he was interviewed by Lyric FM. In his interview he talked about the participation of Ireland in Eurovision 2017 and the possibility of holding Ireland a National Final for the selection of the next representative.

Marty stated that he is upset when commenting on a final from which Ireland is absent.

“We’re having a meeting in a few weeks’ time about it. But the point is, we can have meetings till we’re blue in the face but all we can do is have a plan. It doesn’t mean it’s going to work. It just means, ‘here’s another idea.’ Brendan was good this year and the song was decent. But it didn’t get through. It’s four years in a row and we don’t need that again. We need to be in the final so we’re just going to see if we can come up with another formula”.

“We’re doing the best we can. There’s nothing wrong with it. This year, you could say, ‘How could a song from Portugal, sung in Portuguese – how could it win? But the song was gorgeous and it won. That doesn’t normally happen. Normally it’s pyrotechnics and dancers and mini-skirts and shouting and roaring. It wasn’t that this year, it was different. So you just try and send the best you can”.

At last he concluded:

“Maybe it’s time for a National Song contest again, maybe it isn’t. Maybe we need to make a song ourselves and those of us who have an involvement over the years need to sit in a room and have a conversation”.

Ireland is the queen  of Eurovision with 7 first places. The last of them was in 1996. The last 15 years the best place in the Grand Final was the 8th with Jedward and their song Lipstic. They also left at the bottom of the score board twice in 2007 and 2013 and the last time they managed to reach the Grand Final show was in 2013.