Prior to the 2019 Contest, Ireland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 51 times since its first entry in. Ireland has won the contest a record seven times in total. The country's first win came in 1970, with then-18-year-old Dana winning with "All Kinds of Everything". Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row, as well as having the only three-time winner. In 2011 and 2012, Jedward represented the nation for two consecutive years, managing to qualify to the final both times and achieve Ireland's highest position in the contest since 2000, placing eighth in 2011 with the song "Lipstick". However, in 2013, despite managing to qualify to the final, Ryan Dolan and his song "Only Love Survives" placed last in the final. The Irish entries in 2014, "Heartbeat" performed by Can-Linn featuring Kasey Smith, in 2015, "Playing with Numbers" performed by Molly Sterling, in 2016 "Sunlight" performed by Nicky Byrne, and in 2017 "Dying to Try" performed by Brendan Murray all failed to qualify to the final. Ireland once again qualified for the final in 2018 with the song Together performed by Ryan O'Shaughnessy, placing 16th in the grand final.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
On 8 March 2019, RTÉ announced Sarah McTernan as the Irish entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "22".
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Ireland was set to perform in position 2, following the entry from Armenia and preceding the entry from Moldova.
Semi-final
Ireland performed second in the second semi-final, following the entry from Armenia and preceding the entry from Moldova. At the end of the show, Ireland was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final.It was later revealed that country placed last in the semi-final, receiving a total of 16 points: 3 points from the televoting and 13 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Ireland would have ranked 17th with 3 points.
Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
Points awarded to Ireland
Points awarded by Ireland
Split voting results
The following five members comprised the Irish jury:
Paddy McKenna – Chairperson – singer, songwriter, band lead singer, broadcaster
OGAE is an international organisation founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. It consists of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profit company. In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll took place before the main Eurovision Song Contest allowing members from over 40 clubs to vote for their favourite songs in the contest. In OGAE Poll 2019, 45 clubs have voted. At the end of the voting, Ireland ranked 30th joint with 0 points.
