18 Márta 1972 Seo é an t-aon amhrán as Gaeilge a bheith ag barr na gcairteanna in Eirinn - agus ár n-aon iomaitheoir as Gaeilge i gComórtas na hEoraifíse freisin. Mar sin, táim ag iarraidh an alt seo a scríobh as Gaeilge, le cabhair foclóir ó am go chéile ach gan leagan Béarla agus gan … Continue reading Sandie Jones – ‘Ceol An Ghrá’ →

20 March 1970 The 1970 episode of Reeling In The Years shows Dana's celebratory post-Eurovision homecoming, which includes a meeting with Ireland's then-president, an elderly Éamon de Valera. Dana went on to try to emulate Dev by becoming a fundamentalist Catholic, then an Irish presidential candidate, and finally an American citizen. Still, Dana could claim … Continue reading Dana – ‘All Kinds Of Everything’ →

19 April 1969 If Franco thought he could simply rock up to London, steal a home 1968 Eurovision victory from Cliff, and actually get away with it, then he was in for a land. Summoning up the spirit of Dunkirk, D-Day and The Italian Job, the Brits went to Madrid in 1969 to give those … Continue reading Lulu – ‘Boom Bang-A-Bang’ →

29 March 1969 Fair play to Austria, who seem to have been the only country to boycott the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. Okay, they didn't actually come out and say it was because of the contest being held in the fascist dictatorship of Franco's Spain; perhaps it was a bit too soon for the Anschluss's … Continue reading Muriel Day – ‘The Wages Of Love’ →

27 April 1968 The claim that Eurovision 1968 was rigged by Franco so that Spain as winners would host the following year's event to showcase his country and regime, denying hot favourite Cliff Richard and the UK the win in the process, gets re-aired occasionally without much in the way of hard evidence. Of course, … Continue reading Cliff Richard – ‘Congratulations’ →

20 April 1968 Representing Ireland at Eurovision 1968—the first to be televised in colour—and finishing a creditable fourth is not the most celebrated live performance by Pat McGeegan. His real name was Pat McGuigan, he was the father of '80s world champion boxer Barry, and in lieu of a national anthem he famously sang 'Danny … Continue reading Pat McGeegan – ‘Chance Of A Lifetime’ →

31 May 2012 Ireland's best Eurovision placing of the 2000s was actually in 2000, when a man with a mullet sang a soft rock power ballad called 'Millennium Of Love' and finished sixth. (Bambie Thug has since equalled that sixth-place finish in 2024.) One place above him was a German comedian in a yellow cowboy … Continue reading Loreen – ‘Euphoria’ →

22 April 1967 Here's the first Eurovision winner in English, the first Eurovision winner for the perfidious Royaume-Uni, and the first Eurovision winner to top the Irish charts. In claiming this factoid triple crown for the UK, 'Puppet On A String' pipped that year's Irish entry, Sean Dunphy's bucolic ballad 'If I Could Choose', which … Continue reading Sandie Shaw – ‘Puppet On A String’ →

19 May 2011 Nostalgic for Ireland's Eurovision glory years? Or at least, nostalgic for Ireland reaching the final and therefore avoiding our now-annual national psychodrama at the crushing realisation that other countries may not actually love us as much as we crave? Then you're nostalgic for Jedward and their 2011-12 repping for Ireland, in which … Continue reading Jedward – ‘Lipstick’ →

28 February 1966 Engagement and gamification are not new concepts; the unlikely vanguard of these multimedia strategies was Ireland's 1966 Eurovision entry. Dickie sings "come back to stay" and you can immediately jump in to finish the rhyme-cliche, "stray", which he delivers about half an hour later in this tired, bland, watery ballad. Likewise, "true" … Continue reading Dickie Rock – ‘Come Back To Stay’ →