Ireland has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since its debut in , missing three contests: the in Munich, the in Tallinn and the in Vienna. It will also skip the 2027 contest in Burgas. The current Irish participating broadcaster in the contest is (RTÉ). With a total of seven wins, Ireland held the record for most victories since its sixth win in , and since 2023, it has shared a joint record total of seven wins with , and is the only country to have won three consecutive times. Ireland also holds the record for most victories in one decade, winning a total of four times in the 1990s.

Ireland's seven wins were achieved by the following songs: "All Kinds of Everything" performed by Dana (), "What's Another Year" () and "Hold Me Now" () both by Johnny Logan, "Why Me?" by Linda Martin (), "In Your Eyes" by Niamh Kavanagh (), "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan (), and "The Voice" by Eimear Quinn (). Ireland has also finished second four times. RTÉ has hosted the contest on seven occasions; all were held in the Irish capital Dublin except for the , which was staged in Millstreet, a town in north-west County Cork with a population of 1,500 people.Millstreet. Cork-Guide.ie. Retrieved on 5 September 2007. All of Ireland's entries have been performed in English with the exception of the entry, "Ceol an Ghrá", which was sung in Irish.

Since the introduction of the qualifying round in , Ireland has won the contest twice. Since the introduction of semi-finals in , Ireland has failed to reach the final 12 times, and has twice finished last in the final, in and . Ireland's only top 10 results between 2007 and 2024 were an eighth-place finish with "Lipstick" by Jedward in , and a sixth-place finish with "Doomsday Blue" by Bambie Thug in .

Broadcaster (RÉ) in 1965 and 1966, (RTÉ) between 1967 and 2009, and (RTÉ) since 2010, have been consecutively full members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. They have participated representing Ireland since RTÉ's first entry in the of the contest in 1965. RTÉ broadcasts the semi-finals on RTÉ2, and the final on RTÉ One.RTÉ:Eurovision. RTÉ.ie. Retrieved on 5 September 2007.

History In the years when the live orchestra was present in the contest, almost all of Ireland's Eurovision entries were conducted by Noel Kelehan. The exceptions were 1965 (Italian host conductor Gianni Ferrio), 1970 (Dutch host conductor Dolf van der Linden), from 1972 to 1975 (Colman Pearce), 1979 (Proinnsias Ó Duinn), 1994 (no conductor, although Kelehan conducted three other entries from Romania, Greece and Poland) and in 1997 (Frank McNamara was the musical director for the contest staged in Dublin, but the Irish entry was played with a backing track with no orchestra).

Early years RTÉ first participated in , with Butch Moore being Ireland's first artist to perform at the contest, he was followed in by Dickie Rock. Seán Dunphy finished second at the , behind Sandie Shaw, followed by Pat McGeegan finishing fourth in , Muriel Day in was the first female to represent the country.

Dana gave Ireland its first victory in with "All Kinds of Everything", Ireland hosted for the first time in in which a new voting system was introduced for the next three contests. All of Ireland's entries have been performed in English with the exception of the entry, "Ceol an Ghrá", which was sung in Irish by Sandie Jones, in this year, Ireland received a lower score than usual.

Johnny Logan brought Ireland its second victory in with "What's Another Year?". In , Logan returned to the contest as a performer, and became the first entrant to win the contest twice, achieving his second victory with the self-penned "Hold Me Now".

Ireland hosted the contest twice at the Royal Dublin Society in and , the latter contest saw a victory for Switzerland who were represented by a then unknown Celine Dion.

1990s winning streak and record breaking success Ireland's most successful decade to date is the 1990s, beginning with Liam Reilly finishing joint second in . Ireland subsequently achieved an unequalled three consecutive victories in the contest: in , the 1984 runner-up Linda Martin returned to win with "Why Me?"penned once again by Johnny Logan, giving him a total of three victories as either a performer or writer; in , Niamh Kavanagh was victorious over the 's Sonia with "In Your Eyes"; and in , Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan won with Brendan Graham's "Rock 'n' Roll Kids".

In 1993, Ireland received their fifth win, now equalling France and Luxembourg, as well as being the fourth country to win two times consecutively, the others being Spain, Israel and Luxembourg. In 1994, Ireland made history as the first country to win three times consecutively, a record they still hold as of 2026, as well as becoming the first country to win the contest six times. Ireland hosted the event on three consecutive occasions: in 1993 in Millstreet, and in 1994 and 1995 at the Point Theatre in Dublin.

The winning streak was broken in when Hiberno-Nordic group Secret Garden, representing Norway, won with the almost entirely instrumental "Nocturne". The group contained an Irish member, Naas-born Fionnuala Sherry.

The decade would see yet another victory for Ireland in when Eimear Quinn won with another successful Brendan Graham composition, "The Voice"; This made Ireland the only country to win the contest four times in one decade, and extended Ireland's record total to seven wins. Marc Roberts would also finish second for Ireland in , which was hosted once again at the Point in Dublin. It has been rumoured since the victorious decade that RTE have tried to sabotage Ireland from winning further contests, to avoid the high cost of hosting duties, although this has never been proved.

21st century In the 21st century, Ireland has fared less well, achieving considerably poorer results in comparison to the 1990s. The country's only top 10 placement of the 2000s came when Brian Kennedy finished tenth in . At the , Ireland's representatives were Irish folk group Dervish performing "They Can't Stop The Spring"; having automatically qualified for the final, the group finished last with five points (all from Albania, whose jury votes prevented Ireland from achieving its first no-point score), becoming the first Irish entrants to come last in a final. In , Dustin the Turkey failed to qualify for the final with his song "Irelande Douze Pointe"; the same fate befell Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy in .

In , Ireland's luck changed when X Factor finalists Jedward finished in eighth place with 119 points, thus making them Ireland's most successful entry in 11 years. Their song "Lipstick" topped the iTunes charts in Austria, Germany, Ireland and Sweden. Jedward represented Ireland again in with "Waterline", but after making it through to the final, they were awarded only 46 points, finishing in 19th place. In , Ireland came last in the final for the second time.

In 2018, Ireland qualified for the final for the first time since 2013 with Ryan O'Shaughnessy and "Together", but four more non-qualifications followed in , , and . The country returned to the final in with Bambie Thug and "Doomsday Blue", and finished in sixth place with 278 points, achieving Ireland's best result since and breaking Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan's record for the most points achieved by an Irish entry in the final.

Ireland failed to qualify from the semi-final in , and on 4 December of that year, RTÉ announced it would not participate in due to the inclusion of in the context of the Gaza war. It won't participate in 2027 either.

Absences A strike at RTÉ in 1983 meant that the station lacked the resources to send a participant, so it broadcast the contest with the BBC commentary feed. Ireland was relegated in 2002, but in keeping with EBU rules since they intended to return in 2003, RTÉ broadcast that year's event and a TV commentator was sent to the contest in Tallinn. In December 2025, RTÉ announced Ireland as one of five countries, along with Iceland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain who did not participate in due to the participation of Israel, and for the first time since their debut, RTÉ did not broadcast the contest, RTÉ once again confirmed that they would be boycotting nor broadcasting the contest for the second time in 2027.

Further involvement Logan went on to write the entry "Terminal 3", performed by Linda Martin, which finished second. Logan also wrote the 1992 winning entry. Ireland, who also finished second with "If I Could Choose" by Sean Dunphy (), "Terminal 3" by Linda Martin (), "Somewhere in Europe" by Liam Reilly (), and "Mysterious Woman" by Marc Roberts (), has a total of 18 top five results.

Seven singers have represented Ireland more than once at the contest: Johnny Logan (, ), Linda Martin (, ), Niamh Kavanagh (, ), Tommy and Jimmy Swarbrigg (as "The Swarbriggs" in and part of "The Swarbriggs Plus Two" in ), Maxi (as a soloist in and as part of Sheeba in ) and Jedward in and .

Eight people have written and composed more than one Irish entry: Brendan Graham (1976, 1985, 1994, 1996), Johnny Logan (1984, 1987, 1992), Jonas Gladnikoff (2009, 2010, 2014), Tommy and Jimmy Swarbrigg (1975, 1977), Liam Reilly (1990, 1991), Joe Burkett (composer 1972, lyricist 1981), Niall Mooney (2009, 2010) and Jörgen Elofsson (2017, 2023).Diggiloo Thrush - Ireland

Ronan Keating (who presented the 1997 contest) collaborated on the 2009 entry for Denmark.#2 BBC

RTÉ presenter Marty Whelan was the national commentator between and 2025.

Records

Ireland holds the record for the most victories (jointly with Sweden): seven wins including three consecutive wins. The country has also achieved second place four times and third once.

Ireland is one of the few countries to have achieved consecutive wins (along with Spain, Luxembourg and Israel) and the only country to win consecutively three times, and the nation won again in 1996, thereby accumulating four victories in five years.

Ireland is the only country to host the contest consecutively and is one of eight countries never to turn down the chance to host the event.

Out of 59 appearances and 46 finals, Ireland has reached the top ten 32 times and the top five 18 times. As of 2024, Ireland has not reached the top five since 1997.

Ireland holds the record for most points from one country in a year (alongside France) in the 'one point per juror' voting system, achieving nine votes out of a possible ten from Belgium (in ). France had achieved this same feat in .

Ireland has an average of 74 points per contest, the highest average, two points above the .

During the first semi-final of the 2014 contest, it was revealed that the duo Jedward hold two Eurovision records: the highest hair (18.9 cm) and the biggest shoulder pads.

Participation overview

+ Table key 1 First place 2 Second place 3 Third place ◁ Last place ◇ Entry selected but did not compete