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’ →

5 April 1965 Before Eurovision, what did Ireland do for national pop-cultural psychodrama? Whatever public interest or patriotic pride our first Eurovision entry may have whipped up in 1965, I doubt anyone anticipated its grip on the Irish imagination ever since. If anything, our recent trail of semi-final elimination has intensified our fascination and fervour; … Continue reading Butch Moore – ‘Walking The Streets In The Rain’ →

29 April 2004 You're A Star, Ireland's early-'00s talent show format for Eurovision selection, had two crucial design flaws. First, it's one thing plucking a fresh-faced unknown from obscurity and planting them in the white-hot glare of national TV. But You're A Star went way beyond that: it then teleported them onto the unforgiving stage … Continue reading Chris Doran – ‘If My World Stopped Turning’ →

9 August 2003 Well, this is cheeky. Mickey Harte's 2003 Irish Eurovision entry and number one 'We've Got The World' was noticed to have a similar chorus melody to the 2000 Eurovision winner, 'Fly On The Wings Of Love' (or as it was known in my house, 'Wings On The Fly Of Love') by the … Continue reading XTM – ‘Fly On The Wings Of Love’ →

3 May 2003 I remember a lot of genuine good will for Mickey Joe Harte and 'We've Got The World'. (The single and the Eurovision entry are credited to Mickey Harte. Perhaps the colloquial 'Joe' was considered infra dig for those formalities, or the domestic distinction from the Gaelic football manager of the same name … Continue reading Mickey Harte – ‘We’ve Got The World’ →

5 April 2003 Wow! You people of Ireland 2003 must have really loved your Eurovision, to say that the runner-up of the national final got to number one! Well, context: 2003 was the year Eurosong became You're A Star, an Irish solution to the Irish problem of how to domesticate the new TV reality talent … Continue reading Simon Casey – ‘A Better Plan’ →

5 May 1994 It was a dreadful song anyway: insipid, retrograde AOR balladry about being old people. How it won can only be explained as a whole continent really, really wanting to come back to Ireland on another expenses-paid jolly same time next year. (The UK entry that year, 'Lonely Symphony' sung by Frances Ruffelle, … Continue reading Bill Whelan – ‘Riverdance’ →

23 May 1993 Aside from winning the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, 'In Your Eyes' provides an unlikely musical connection between two very different hit movies decades apart, The Commitments and Frozen. Its singer, Niamh Kavanagh, didn't appear in The Commitments but sang lead vocals on a couple of its featured songs, notably 'Destination Anywhere'. Its … Continue reading Niamh Kavanagh – ‘In Your Eyes’ →