Ireland: Despite initial reactions, RTE confirms participation in Eurovision 2019
The Irish national broadcaster has confirmed that it will be present in Tel Aviv and the country will participate in Eurovision 2019.
The last months , strong reactions arouse in northern countries , objecting to a Israeli hosting of the next Eurovision Song Contest, after Nett’a win in Lisbon. One of those countries was Ireland , in which there were domestic objections to a future hosting of the contest in Israel especially Jerusalem. This movement called for a boycott of the 64th edition of the contest , in solidarity for the Palestine people.
Initally singers, creators, activists and a number of well-known Irish figures have launched a campaign to push RTE to boycott the next Eurovision Song Contest. This first reactions were followed by another initiative coming from the Sin Fein party, calling for a withdrawal and boycott of the Eurovision 2019
However, it seems that these initial reactions were strong enough to keep the 7 times Eurovision winner away from the next edition of the contest in Tel Aviv. The Irish national broadcaster , RTE, confimred today that the country will participate in Eurovision 2019. This will be the 53rd irish participation in the contest . The mechanism to determine the next Irish representative is yet to be specified the following days.
The Irish Eurovision Story so far
Ireland is a country of records when it comes to the Eurovison Song Contest. It participated for the first time in 1965 and has won the competition 7 times, more than any other country. (1970, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996).
It is the only country that has won the contest three successive years (1992, 1993, 1994) while Dublin is the only city to have hosted the event two consecutive years. (1994,1995). During the decade of 90’s the country had a row of 4 vicotries in a 5 year time (1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997) and Dublin became host city three times.
Irish act Johnny Logan is the only one to have won the contest twice (1980, 1987).
In 2018 the country selected internally Ryan O’Shaughnessy to represent the country with his song Together, which finished 16th in the grand final.
