by Niall Drennan

Every year in the lead up to Eurovision, facts are figures about the contest are quoted at length by both fans and the media. Top of this list is which country has won Eurovision the most times – the answer being Ireland with an impressive 7 wins under its belt.

Ireland was the dominant force in Eurovision in the 1990’s racking up an impressive 4 wins in a 5 year period. It even holds the record as having the most successful interval act with Riverdance.

However, Ireland’s recent performance in Eurovision has been a far cry from its glory days in the 90’s. Since 2007, there have been 4 failures to qualify for the final and 2 last place finishes. Not an impressive record for the most successful Eurovision country. If it was not for Jedward’s 8th place finish in 2011, it could be argued that Ireland is currently one of the worst performing countries in Eurovision, keeping company with Portugal (sorry Portugal, fingers are always crossed for your first win).

This year, Molly Sterling’s gentle and well written ballad failed to strike a chord with Eurovision voters. Putting her behind a wooden upright piano that blocked any relationship with the audience and cameras certainly didn’t help. This is another example of RTE getting the staging completely wrong – something that has been apparent over recent years. At least with Molly, they ditched the clichéd Celtic theme that featured in Ireland’s recent entries (Kasey Smith’s Heartbeat in 2014 and Ryan Dolan with Only Love Survives in 2013). However it is evident RTE don’t have the capability of creating a modern and creative stage presentation, or have no interest in doing so. Many fans suspect it’s the latter and speculate that RTE do not want to win the contest again due to the high costs involved. Even if this is the case, it does not excuse the poor result and several failures to even qualify for the final.

Perhaps the turning point in Ireland’s relationship with Eurovision was the choice to send Dustin the Turkey to represent the country in 2008. What was intended to be a tongue in cheek joke to show that Europe that Ireland didn’t take the contest seriously, certainly backfired and turned into a national embarrassment. This was predicted by Ireland’s first Eurovision winner, Dana, who said that by sending Dustin, Ireland was essentially sticking two fingers up at the contest.

Sometimes you have to reach the lowest point in order to start the slow climb upwards. Ireland is not unique in this regard. Take a look at Norway – a country with the most “nul points” in the history of the contest but has turned this around in recent years with three top ten finishes in the past 3 years and a win in 2009. This shows that just because you are down, it doesn’t mean you are out.

Ireland’s return to its glory days is going to take time, effort and investment along with smart, well-researched choices and good judgment on the part of RTE. The selection format needs to be overhauled into a national event, similar to what is happening in other countries that have had recent success in Eurovision (hello Azerbaijan and Sweden). To RTE’s credit they have taken the initial steps by ditching the mentor system and opening up the selection process to all songwriters as they did this year. However RTE also need to step up when it comes to the staging and performance and invest the time and resources into creating the best performance possible.

Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm will the 20th anniversary since Ireland won Eurovision. A lot has changed in the contest since Eimear Quinn’s win in 1996 and RTE need to start to take the contest seriously and enter with a view to win. If they can find a good song and singer and come up with a great production, perhaps 2016 will be the year that the Emerald Isle regains its Eurovision crown….of course the luck of the Irish can also help.