Ireland at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
This article looks at the history of Ireland as a participant in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest .
Preliminary decisions
Ireland chose its first contribution through a large-scale preliminary decision. There were four preliminary rounds with a total of 32 participants. These were previously selected from hundreds of submissions. In each preliminary round, one out of eight participants reached the final of the preliminary round with the two-minute version of their entry. The recording of the final of "Junior Eurovision Éire" was broadcast on November 8, 2015. The participant for 2016, 2017 and 2018 was determined in the same way. There was a minor change to the rules for 2019: The preliminary decision was only used to select the artist, the song was later determined internally.
Participation in the competition
Already in 2004 and 2014 it was reported that the Irish language television TG4 was interested in participating in the JESC, but the debut in 2014 did not take place due to a lack of financial resources.
These funds were approved for 2015, which is why the Irish debut was officially announced on March 23, 2015. Aimee Banks finished 12th for Ireland with 36 points. The title is sung in Irish ; the last and so far only Irish-language title came in the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest in 15th place. Aimee Banks reached the 12th of 17 places with 36 points in 2015. In 2016, Ireland reached tenth place, making it first in the top ten. In 2017, Muireann McDonnell was only penultimate with 54 points - Ireland's worst placement at the JESC so far. In the following year, 2018, Taylor Hynes took 15th place out of 20. In 2019, it was enough for 12th place. Ireland has been moderately successful since its first participation; however, they have never finished last.
List of posts
| year | Interpreter | Title (music / text) |
language | translation | Place participants (total) |
Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Aimee Banks |
Réalta na mara (Brendan McCarthy, Niall Mooney, Jonas Gladnikoff, Aimee Banks / Aimee Banks) |
Irish , Latin | Star of the sea | 12/17 | 36 |
| 2016 | Zena Donnelly |
Bríce ar bhríce (Zena Donnelly) |
Irish, English | Stone by stone | 10/17 | 122 |
| 2017 | Muireann McDonnell |
Súile glasa (Muireann McDonnell) |
Irish | Green eyes | 15/16 | 54 |
| 2018 | Taylor Hynes |
IOU (Taylor Hynes, Niall Mooney, Jonas Gladnikoff) |
Irish | - | 15/20 | 48 |
| 2019 | Anna Kearney |
Banshee (Niall Mooney, Fiachna O Bhraonáin, Anna Kearney, Cyprian Cassar, Daniel Caruana) |
Irish | banshee | 12/19 | 73 |
Scoring
The following countries received the most points from Ireland or gave the most points to Ireland:
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Status: 2015