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National Final in February
Ireland: Announcement before the end of the month
esctoday.com has learned that an announcement is due around the end of the month on the selection details, with a National Final to be held, provisionally set for Friday 22nd February 2009.
Due to the current financial crisis, the Irish broadcaster is experiencing a shortage of funding for large scale television projects. This means that the National Final in 2009 won't be as well budgetted as the Eurosong 2008 national selection show held in Limerick last February.
esctoday.com believes this years show will be similar to that of the National Final held in 2006 & 2007 on RTÉ's most popular television light-entertainment programme, The Late Late Show.
Back then, a representative(s) for Ireland would be internally chosen by RTÉ around November, a call for songs would be made for that representative(s), the following February on The Late Late Show the representative(s) would sing 3 songs and the public would vote on which song would be sung at the Eurovision Song Contest by the representative.
Brian Kennedy and Dervish were the representatives at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 and 2007 of whom sang Every Song is A Cry for Love and They Can't Stop the Spring respectively.
Check back with esctoday.com for the latest news and updates...
- Replay: Watch Eurosong 2008, the Irish National Final held last February here.
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Go directly to the reactions
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RTE have definitely lost interest in the contest and too be honest i dont blame them, they should the path of ORF and pull out totally, there is and always has been so much muscial talent in ireland that i think that if we even sent U2 or westlife that we still wouldnt qualify or win 
but thats down too voting, i still think that 50/50 jury should be in final as well, however, as we saw from this yr regardless of what western countries get through (Norway the exception this yr) it will still be all eastern nations in top 10. We irish will just have too live with the fact that we are ESC champions with 7 wins and i think it is a safe record for a long time.though i do have a major fear that Russia will prob pull off a double next yr, if not its probably Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijans turn.
Westlife or Boyzone!
Truth is that RTE (and the Irish public) have lost interest in ESC since the mid 90's - I think it would be best if we did an Austria and made a dignified exit. Viewing figures are still high - ESC is in the top 10 most watched shows on RTE each year but I think most people tune in for the voting rather than the songs - and more especially to see how many points we give to the UK (and if we're in the final) how many we receive from the UK
The Real hero
Fair enough.
Who would you like to see represent Ireland in Moscow?
Will T:
I read they dropped slightly from the previous year, still good though 
I reckon its cause Ireland wasn't in the final
The real hero, you are the only one strange wacko here. I just can't believe you still reply to "the real zingo star" (that's... yourself). You've been doing that since March or April, don't you get tired of that? It's really stupid, believe me.
I think Ireland lost interest in eurovision by the look of it... its a shame.
does anyone know if the Irish viewing figures for ESC were good in May?
What's JESC got to do with Ireland?
I for one am totally shocked that esctoday has yet to report that tonight is Junior Eurovision Song Contest night!
Tonight is JESC! as always esctoday has failed!
I can hardly wait....zzzzzzzzzz
Leona Daly is a great singer, she should of definatly gone to Belgrade
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=XFndRUfN1U0
Alex 31st
Ireland have sent Westlife before- well, Brian McFadden wrote the song in 2004- a very bland one
Why not give Leona Daly a new chance 
"Not crazy after all" was a good song, I still listen to it a lot.
i dont think johnny logan would sing again but i bet he would agree to write a song. this year was very embarrasing for ireland. leona had a really good song but the result was inevitable. sad for a country that always used to take esc seriously. maybe they should enter a song in lithuanian next yr, just to confuse the voters!
errrr price cuts >
jonny logan wouldnt go near it ...
theese fools would use any excuse to get ride of eurovision,
they have no respect or clue about the present competition
and thats why they have no respect for the eurovision any
more ... jonny logan would know better
tv3 would probly do a better job...
Doesn;t anybody notice how fishy it is, that bothe the country that sent a turkey thi year is on the same main news block with the country that sent the chicken ?
Night Editor
I also put my money on Johnny Logan!
My money's on the song being written by Jonny Logan.
They should give this job to Leona Daly to apologize at least partly the injustice she had to suffer this year...
Sorry, but everyone should look at this!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision
Boyzone should have a go!
LEONA DALYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!
Not Westlife/lowlife - all they need is one decent artist - just because they are short of money doesn't mean it has to be bad quality but they should just choose carefully.
Westlife? Ooh god no. They do nothing but covers these days and are really losing their touch. Take That are far better.
WESTLIFE 4 IRELAND 2009!!!
Westlife is the only way to reach some top place for Ireland after years.
They are my best artists/group ever , and i love almost all their songs , as i have them all !!!!
In 2008 i liked really much Dustin with his funny irish accent and kinda speek . Altho one of my fave songs ever is "Not crazy after all" by Leona Daly , who participated in the Irish NF this year.
VERY BEST LUCK !!!
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