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About Ireland...
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2005 Result
Points in Semi Final: 53
Position in Semi Final: 14th
Points in Final: Failed to qualify
Position in Final: Failed to qualify
2006 Contest: Must compete in Semi Final
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History (1956 to 2004)
Ireland's previous appearances: 38 year(s) out of 49
Years participated: 1965-1982; 1984-2001; 2003-
Best result: 1st (1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996)
With 38 appearances, Ireland has appeared at Eurovision the same number of times as Portugal and Finland, but with a rather more impressive record to show for it. The country has won an incredible seven times, twice with entries performed by Johnny Logan - the only artist to have won Eurovision more than once. Unsurprisingly, Ireland's record is better than any other country - France, Luxembourg and the UK are the next best, with five victories each, none of which - on recent form - are likely to challenge Ireland's tally just yet.
Amazingly, Ireland won four contests in five years during the mid 1990s, with songs performed by Linda Martin ('Why me?', 92), Niamh Kavanagh ('In your eyes', 93), Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan ('Rock 'n' roll kids', 94), and most recently with Eimear Quinn and 'The voice' (96). While all secured easy victories at the time thanks to the votes of the national juries, none really appeared to command much support among the public or Eurovision fans - a situation that may well have precipitated the demise of the juries in favour of televoting since 1997. In hindsight, I still find 'Why me?' to be mawkish and old-fashioned, but 'In your eyes', 'Rock 'n' roll kids' and 'The voice' have stood the test of time well, and are maturing into Eurovision evergreens. Nevertheless, Dana's 'All kinds of everything' from 1970, and Johnny Logan's two songs from 1980 and 1987, 'What's another year' and 'Hold me now', probably remain Ireland's best known winners among the public at large.
Since its last win nine years ago, Ireland's fortunes have suffered a remarkable downturn. Though 1997's 'Mysterious Woman' came a clear second to Katrina and the Waves, 1998's entry by Dawn stalled in (what was in Irish terms) a disappointing 9th place, while 1999's song finished 17th, giving Ireland one of its lowest ever placings. 2000's 6th place provided a brief respite from the gloom, before 2001's entry, 'Without your love' scored a miserable 6 points - probably 6 more than it deserved - and 21st place. For the first time, Ireland suffered the indignation of being relegated and had to miss the 2002 contest all together. 2003's comeback, Mickey Harte's 'We've got the world', finished 11th, just enough to secure Ireland's direct place in the 2004 Final, but a far cry from the country's success of old. As Eurovision has embraced new countries and musical styles, some would claim that Ireland's recent entries have sounded increasingly old fashioned; equally, with the free language rule since 1999, Ireland seems to have suffered from no longer having the automatic advantage of performing in English. This was ably illustrated by the Irish entry in 2004, Chris Doran's dismal 'If my world stopped turning' only missing out on 'nul points' because the UK inexplicably awarded it 7. Faced with taking part in the Semi Final in 2005, let's hope that Ireland can come up with something other than a boring bloke singing a miserable ballad...
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This year's entry
Position in Semi Final draw: 22
Position in Final draw: Failed to qualify
What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"... and wahey! Ireland is sending a duo to Eurovision, with a song that quite clearly isn't a ballad. Notwithstanding the fact that male-female duos are so last year, it is a relief that the Irish are trying something different for 2005. The third series of 'You're a star', the talent show format used to choose the Irish artist and song, has been much-maligned in 2005, with criticism of almost everything - the format, the voting, the judges, and, oh, the talent. At the end of it all, siblings Donna and Joseph McCaul emerged the winners, unkindly - but perhaps with some justification - described as 'The Milky Bar Kid and his Mother'. Appearances aside, the song is really not too bad - called 'Love?', as if they're not quite sure whether that's the title or not, it is certainly an old-fashioned ditty, with pretentions of being more dramatic than it really is, and a rather gratuitous Riverdance-style interlude towards the end. Still, the McCauls (now repackaged as 'Donna and Joe') perform it with great gusto, and are capable of giving very strong live performances, even if the quality of their voices is a little grating at times. I'm really not sure what to make of it - I find the song strangely likeable, at the same time as recognising that it's bad, bad, bad..."
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What I predicted...
My prediction for Semi Final: 23rd to 25th
My prediction for Final: Will not qualify
What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"Decisions, decisions. With Coral giving Ireland odds of 40-1, the country's prospects of success would appear slim - even Chris Doran was never rated lower than 25-1 in 2004. Overall, I think this will either bomb without trace or do surprisingly well - however, endearing though Donna and Joe are, I fear that 2005 could be Ireland's Jemini moment, despite this entry being a big improvement on last year's effort, and having the undoubted advantage of being performed after a song that is even worse (Bulgaria). 'Nul points' will depend on whether anyone in the UK can bring themselves to vote for it."
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What you thought...
Final Poll Ranking: out of 39 ()
(Updated 22 May 2005; change refers to movement over final week)
In the run up to the Contest, 27,998 visitors to this site voted for their favourite song in the Soult.com Eurovision Poll (up from 5,000 in 2004!)
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What actually happened...
Perhaps my earlier comments about this song were a little harsh, as I have to confess that I actually found the live performance of 'Love?' rather enjoyable. Donna proved herself to be a very good singer indeed, while the song didn't really give Joe much opportunity to show his vocal talents other than during a brief solo part towards the end of the song. Credit to them both though - it was a jolly good effort, making the best of a rather underwhelming and repetitive song, and giving a strong performance that belied their lack of experience. It wasn't enough, of course, to lift Ireland into the Final, but 53 points and 14th place in the Semi Final was far from a disgrace.
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What the bookies thought...
 | Ireland to win: | 21/05/05 (prior to Final) | - |
| | 19/05/05 (after Semi Final) | - |
| | 19/05/05 (prior to Semi Final) | 40-1 |
| | 16/05/05 | 40-1 |
| | 15/05/05 | 40-1 |
| | 08/05/05 | 40-1 |
| | 02/05/05 | 40-1 |
| | 24/04/05 | 33-1 |
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Ireland's odds of 40-1 were probably its longest ever; but then again, 'Love?' was one of its worst songs ever, surprising few people by failing to finish in the Semi Final top ten.
(Odds quoted here were those offered by Coral.co.uk. 'F' indicates favourite, 'JF' joint favourite.)
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Links
 http://www.rte.ie/star/
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Notes (see 'History' above)
- The 1956 Contest (where each country had two songs) is counted as a single appearance;
- Countries eliminated in the 1993 preliminary heat (EE, HU, RO, SK) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
- Countries eliminated in the 1996 preliminary heat (DE, DK, HU, IL, MK, RO, RU) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
- Countries eliminated in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Semi Finals ARE counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest.
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Your comments (69)
From Kerry Mc Evoy, Ireland
Added 19:29:51 2006-04-19
Well Done donna and Joe
I saw you on the 18th in the point theatre with westlife you were the bomb u both rock my world
From Damian, United Kingdom
Added 2:21:6 2005-12-18
This song was really not good at all. The appearance of the Milkybar Kid on stage for Ireland just made the whole thing look even more incredulous. A place in the final was well beyond the capabilities of Ireland this year.
From Deaglan, IRELAND
Added 1:14:30 2005-8-16
Hard Luck Donna and Joe.Our song this year was fantastic!!!!we should have got through!!!Hard luck!Moldova was the worst song ever!!Iceland and Lithuania was great and shud hav got thru 2!!!!!!better luck next year!!!!
From Esme, AUSTRALIA
Added 4:56:17 2005-6-27
I liked this song - it is a real grower. Although there were quite a few great songs in the semi-final, it was disappointing that this one didn't make it through.
From Void_main, TURKEY
Added 13:26:46 2005-6-20
What a pity:( How come these guys failed in semi-finals? Nice song and great performance when compared with those stupid and cliche songs that able to join to finals!!
From Paul, IRELAND
Added 11:3:29 2005-5-30
I'm not a great fan of Hungary, but don't you think they ripped off riverdance this year?? >:-)
From Paul, IRELAND
Added 11:1:13 2005-5-30
John - I agree with your post 100%
I think RTE should seriously consider your solution. They could still profit from the pop-slop kiddies texting their votes, and give the winners something else, like letting them release a single or something. But don't give away our Eurovision entry as a prize.
From Tóth András, HUNGARY
Added 13:50:39 2005-5-28
I'm not a fan of Ireland, but this song was really good, I had thought that you would win.
The biggest problem was that the voting system is still bad.
From Paul, IRELAND
Added 11:25:11 2005-5-27
Yep - I was right - we didn't even qualify. Although I have to say, it was no worse than 95% of the other crap in the qualifiers. It's totally political, neighbours vote for their friends and those abroad vote back for their home countries. Notice countries like Turkey always get loads of votes from Germany (since there's so many Turks there). Romania got a few from Ireland this year.
We are clinging on desperately to our "most wins" record. For us to ever win the Eurovision again, I think we'd have to put forward something REALLY miles above the rest. I still think we're capable of it, but it will never happen so long as:
- RTE is still making money from people texting "You're a Star".
- We loose the countryside mentality of voting for your county and start thinking of ourselves as a country instead.
RTE will not dump eurostar because they make too much money from it. The alternative would mean that not only will they loose the money they make from the competition, but they'd actually have to pay to host the next contest if we won!
Let's face it - we sold ourselves out LONG ago. The eurovision is crap anyway :)
From John, IRELAND
Added 14:44:18 2005-5-25
Until "You're a Star" disappears, which it's very unlikely to do. Ireland will continue to enter a load of manufactured pop rubbish.
I don't understand why we can't have a national song contest, like we did in the past to pick the actual song.
Then just let You're A Star pick the performers.
The whole selection process is just like Pop Idol and proves that the text-voting population (girls aged from 10-13) don't really have very much taste!
Also, You're a Star plays on the fact that someone's a local of a particular area. So, when someone from a rural area gets into it the locals support them at all costs, no matter how aweful they actualy are.
So, thousands and thousands of texts and calls come in from that area.
The result is we don't actually get a good song or performer, we get a "local champion".
It's a load of nonsense!
The fact that Your A Star winners can't even get to the finals of the Eurovision song contest is going to do damage to the show anyway.
You're A Star could function quite well on its own. It'd make just as much money without destroying the Eurovision in the process!
From me, LITHUANIA
Added 17:45:22 2005-5-24
great song! ;
From european_serb, --
Added 17:13:24 2005-5-23
I loved ur song! Well done!
From Dave, IRELAND
Added 22:39:22 2005-5-21
Personally, I didn't bother watching the Eurovision this year. I think the religations / pre-qualification round just makes it less interesting.
If we're not in the final next year I would be in favour of RTE cutting funding for the Eurovision (money could be better spent on decent programming) and perhaps let a smaller public service channel like TG4 carry the eurovision song contest instead. At least they might benefit from the large audience.
From augustia=], LITHUANIA
Added 19:38:23 2005-5-21
Ireland was great!!! it's just unfair that you didn't pass the semifinal ... i think that also Ireland, also Lithuania had to pass the semi final because our songs were GReat!!! I think that Rumunia were digusting ... hmm ... it's really bad ...
From Simon, UNITED KINGDOM
Added 19:9:56 2005-5-21
I thought Ireland didn't stand a chance until I saw the performance, it was almost perfect. I think Ireland are beginning to suffer from the same misfortune as Portugal and Iceland - a total lack of neighbouring countries!! Well done Donna and Joe, you're a credit to your country despite this ridiculous voting!!
From Mark, GERMANY
Added 15:34:10 2005-5-21
I wasn´t very excited about this one at first sight. But their live performance in the Semi was truly excellent i must confess.
The final results of thursday night were bitter and ridiculous. Don´t worry Ireland, you were in good companionship when tonight again the better ones will end at the bottom of the score, if this ever will give you some comfort.
From irish cailin, IRELAND
Added 13:30:15 2005-5-21
im disgusted at the results of the semi final - donna and joseph mc caul were by far one of the best performances of the night and got a brillant reaction from the audience.there is def political voting going on when you see countries like croatia,moldova,macedonia,latvia and hungary go thru.ireland deserved a place ahead of these countries at least.we need to bring back jury voting if ireland ever stand a realistic chance of winning again.if not we are wasting our time and shouldnt bother coming back next year.
From Vilma, LITHUANIA
Added 13:14:32 2005-5-21
not very good song! my favourite ireland song was Mickey Harte "We've got the world tonight" !!!!i adore him and i'm listening it usually!!! no matter your song was not very good but it's a pity for me that you and also lithuania didnt qualified for the final ;/ but i hope we will do the best we can next year! good luck :) kisses from lithuania =****
From Paul, IRELAND
Added 10:54:26 2005-5-20
My God - that song was awful! What's all this childish UK v/s Eire crap - haven't heard the UK song, but last year their entry was great (unlike the panpipe crap we passed off as music). If it's good this year I'll be voting for them.
We need to dump "your a star" and leave it to some judges who actually know what they're talking about, instead of a bunch of pop kiddies and grannies who thought the milkybar kid and his mother were cute, or from their county or whatever.
Anyway - the Eurovision is a joke. Everyone votes for their neighbours, or their friends, regardless of how bad the song is, and the winning performer never goes on to be successful. In fact they usually becomes a butt joke. Not to mention the fact that the contest is still stuck in 1984 :-D
From Shay, IRELAND
Added 23:57:14 2005-5-19
Well looks like Graham you got it 100% right for Ireland. Graham said they would bomb out and they did.
Reason? Because Ireland have a TV program called "You're A Star" to choose the (worst) song for the Eurovision - this replaced the very successful 'National Song Contest' (N.S.C) which focused on the song and not the singer.
Ireland won this competition 4 times in the 90's when their system of choosing the songs was much different (the N.S.C) - they changed the system (I think to make money from the text messages and phone calls used for voting - Thats why you never hear how many votes were cast).
Its all a big scam and as far as I can see Ireland will never win another Eurovision while this terrible program is running on RTE.
[REPLY FROM GRAHAM: I agree, Shay. To their credit, I thought Donna and Joe gave a really strong vocal performance, but there's only so much you can do with a weak song]
From Christopher Mintoff, MALTA
Added 21:35:34 2005-5-19
I like this. The lyrics may be corney, but it's fun song. I wish to see this in the final.
From Kavless, IRELAND
Added 13:6:1 2005-5-19
For most of the period between You're a Star and now this has looked like a certainty to poll poorly in the semi final, but word on the ground in Kyiv suggests that this could do better than expected!
From João Velada, PORTUGAL
Added 21:58:50 2005-5-18
Hey, Graham Soult! I like very much the previous Irish entries "Without Your Love" and "If My World Stopped Turning" and I think that they both deserved many more points and an higher place in their respective years (there were so many songs worse than this two).
Anyway, I think that "Love?" will easily qualify for the final and produce the best result for Ireland in the ESC since the year 2000 or even since 1997! Good luck to Donna and Joe!
From MACHU, FRANCE
Added 13:43:46 2005-5-18
Ireland for Ever ! Good luck Ireland !
From Runen, DENMARK
Added 23:45:1 2005-5-17
First timer on this site, can I make some points.
No Offence but the majority of people who either post on eurovision sites and going that design them for specifically Eurovision take it a little seriously. I think they dont reflect the opinions of the overall voters who will decide the outcome.
This song will do really well with house wives/ mothers and gays -that usual does it.
Good luck Ireland.
Slan
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Ireland
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