Ireland is Eurovision's most successful nation, winning a massive 7 times, 4 of which were in the 1990's.  Somehow, since their last win in 1996, it's gone horribly wrong, where Ireland have faced relegation, low positions and failure to qualify from the Semi. 2001 and 2004 saw horribly low results, and in 2004 the Irish were saved from the elusive 'nul points' only by the 7 points that the UK awared them.  They had high hopes for brother and sister duet Donna & Joe in 2005, changing their tracks from entering 'just another boring male ballad' which had once proved so popular.  Unfortunately, it was not to be and although Donna & Joe managed an alright 14th place out of 25, it wasn't enough to let Ireland qualify, and they found themselved in the Semi-Final for two years running.  Fortunately Brian Kennedy saved Ireland from embarassment when they qualified and finished 10th in the Final, qualifying to the 2007 Final in Helsinki.

 

 

This year Ireland have chosen to send popular folk group Dervish to Eurovision, and in a choice of four songs the Irish public chose ‘They Can’t Stop The Spring’ as the entry to represent Eurovision’s most successful nation in 2007.  Being from Northern Ireland, I do have a little fancy to this kind of song, and am very happy to see something unmistakably and authentically Irish back in Eurovision this year, while still being totally different from the boring Irish male ballad.  The song is a good one, not necessarily strong, but still a good one – and you can hardly call Brian Kennedy’s entry a strong one from last year.  The draw isn’t great though, and I wasn’t that impressed with the performance at the selection – it would have helped if the lead singer had tried to look like she was enjoying herself, could actually play her boran and was a little less harsh on the old vocal chords.  If, and it is a big if, she learns to smile a lot more, and soothes the vocals this should sound a lot better and could give Ireland a good placing.

 

 

Ireland have pulled quite a poor draw - being sandwiched between the Finnish entry (which is likely to be forgotten about) and a qualifier (which is likely to do rather well, and outshine Ireland).  Coming up so early won't help this, but if the performance sounds as good as the recorded version, Ireland could look forward to a top ten position.  I think the odds are against it though, and Ireland will find themselves lost among the competition, resulting in a placing closer to the bottom of the scoreboard than to the top.

 

 

No change for Ireland I'm afraid, I just don't think they can pick up points and will be forgotten about come the voting a whole 20 songs later.

 

 

One of the most deserved placings of the evening was possibly Irelands.  It really didn’t look or sound good at all, and although it was nice to have a folk song in and amidst so much diversity in musical tastes and genres, it did seem a bit dated.  Cathy, the lead singer was very nervous, and practically out of tune the whole way through, never mind starting to sing too early, and when you know that everything is done from a backing track, the folk group just looked so inauthentic and unnecessary.  This was a big disappointment, not very good at all, and had it not have been for Albania’s jury awarding 5 points you could bet they would have scored nothing at all.  As for my prediction: 16^th-18^th is a lot better than last place, so I’m wrong again, surprise, surprise.