Even though yesterday was the Eurovision final, Ireland did not take part in the Eurovision, along with Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Iceland. This makes Ireland only one of five countries that took the step of refusing to participate in the Eurovision, and only one of three that refused to broadcast it, along with Span and Slovenia.
And to say this is enough would be an insult to Hind Rajab, brutally murdered after making one of the most heartbreaking phone calls in history, where she pleaded desperately for help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-HyIiyNQ9E
To say this is enough would be an insult to the eighty year old man used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers, and then, after his exhausting and terrifying ordeal, was shot dead anyway:
To say this is enough would be an insult to every single Palestinian who has been assaulted, traumatized, dehumanized and murdered by Israel. But, I hope, I really hope, that it’s worth more than nothing.
A Late Response
Despite having never watched the Eurovision, never in full anyway, I have written about it because of the Eurovision’s outright refusal to ban Israel, despite the fact that they, quite rightly, banned Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine. In fact, my first ever post about the genocide in Gaza was about the Eurovision’s refusal to ban Israel:
An important lesson I learned from that year of Eurovision was to never, ever, trust someone from Macroom, as I talked about here:
Bambi Thug was the Eurovision contestant that year, and I, quite foolishly in hindsight, gave them the benefit of the doubt. They participated in the Eurovision, but throughout cried crocodile tears for the people of Gaza. I over generously assumed that they felt they were between a rock and a hard place, sympathizing with the people of Gaza, but still really wanting to fulfill a lifelong dream of participating in the Eurovision. Even if all of that WERE true it would still have been no excuse for participating in the Eurovision. I generously assumed that Bambi Thug would be doing more to highlight the struggle of the people of Gaza if they weren’t constricted by the Eurovision’s rules. But then, when the Eurovision ended, Thug went silent on Gaza. Their talk of support for the Palestinian people was nothing but a publicity stunt. Lesson learned, never trust anyone from Macroom!
Next year, 2025, Ireland participated in the Eurovision again, this time with Emmy, from Norway. Norway, eh? Isn’t that a few miles north of Ireland? Doesn’t that not make sense? Don’t worry, she’s white, and that’s all that really matters!
Because you see, a contingent of knuckledragging racists is in the process of rising to prominence in this country. Which is why there was massive online abuse against Suad Mooge, who was born in Ireland, but the knuckle draggers hate her, in a very mask off way, because she’s black:
https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-rose-suad-mooge-says-33928890
And it’s terrifying how open and completely mask off the abuse has been. If they wanted to bullshit a reason, they could have said she was a Dublin Rose despite being from Sligo. But they didn’t even feel the need to bullshit a reason, Ireland has reached a point where these people can, with complete confidence, assert that the reason they don’t like her is because she’s black. Non-Irish (granted, they had Irish ancestry), contestants entered the Rose Of Tralee many times before, and there wasn’t a peep of a complaint, because they were white. It’s despicable to think that some Irish people will look at the, granted arguably fictitious sign, “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs”, and think “I only disagree with the first part”.
So, that was Eurovision 2025. A white non-Irish person competed in the Irish Eurovision, and it was fine with the knuckledraggers, because of her whiteness. Ireland’s approach that year was to have a contestant who, doesn’t have like, opinions and stuff. They lost with Bambi Thug, a much more opinionated contestant, could they win with a contestant who doesn’t appear to have any opinions? No, they didn’t get very far with Emmy either.
I wish I could say that the entire reason that Ireland pulled out of the Eurovision was for ethical reasons. I would love if that were true. But sadly, simple pragmatism might have played its part. Ireland hasn’t won the Eurovision since 1996. And it really is a case of, oh how the mighty have fallen. Ireland won 3 years in a row, in 1992, 1993, and 1994. With 1994 they even won with “Rock ‘n”Roll Kids”, which came as a surprise to many, as typically a more bombastic and energetic song is what’s expected for the Eurovision, and this was a very quiet and reflective ballad:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_’n’_Roll_Kids
Ireland lost in 1995, but then won again in 1996:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_(Eimear_Quinn_song)
I remember this time well, when it was just, expected that Ireland would win. Sure 1995 was an exception to to the rule, but, it was just taken as a give, the sun would rise, the sun would set, Ireland would win the Eurovision. But that was it, no more Eurovision victories for Ireland for the next thirty years.
And I think that’s relevant. We’ve gone from the country that’s expected to win, to the country that’s expected to lose. Hell, Ireland literally sent a turkey to the Eurovision in 2008:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irelande_Douze_Pointe
Yes, in Ireland Dustin The Turkey is a national treasure. Every Irish person would, without hesitation, take a bullet for Dustin The Turkey, but the reality of the situation is, Dustin’s humour is very Irish specific. NOBODY outside of Ireland understood what was going on when Dustin took the stage.
So, after thirty years of entering the Eurovision, and getting nowhere, I suspect a cynical calculation may have been made. I can’t prove it, and I would love to be proven wrong, but I can’t help wondering, after thirty years of getting nowhere with the Eurovision, after three decades of the question being asked, “Why do we continue to embarrass ourselves?”, was the decision made to pull out of the Eurovision, because, it just wasn’t worth it anymore, but save face by claiming it was based on opposition to Israel’s horrific genocide?
It’s a possibility I can’t discount. However, on the other side, it does look as if RTE “clung on” as long as possible, like the Eurovision was something they didn’t want to let go of. If they wanted to exit for pragmatic reasons, while claiming it was for ethical ones, they could have done so in 2024, or 2025, but they didn’t.
So, it could be that RTE bolted on the Eurovision for entirely cynical reasons, or it could be that they finally caved to more than two years of protest by the pro-Palestine movement, and were finally forced to do the right thing. Or it could be a bit of both, sometimes life is complicated like that.
The Eurovision Has Shown Its True Colours
If you had asked me for most of my life why I don’t watch the Eurovison, I would have either given you a fairly neutral answer like, “Eh it’s not my cup of tea”, or in a younger or angrier part of my life I might have said, “It’s a corporate corporatist corporation of corporateness is what it is!” But more recently, I would have given a different answer as to why I don’t watch it. Quite simply, and quite bluntly, the Eurovision has allowed itself to become nothing but a propaganda wing of the Israeli state.
It’s not like they haven’t acted against aggressive states before, Russia was banned from the Eurovision after all. But, for Israel, they happily deployed one of the most sickening excuses in the English language, “We stay out of politics.” Now you could say, Eurovision isn’t particularly ethical sure, but isn’t it a stretch to say that they’re effectively a propaganda organization for Israel?
Until quite recently, sure, I might have granted that that’s a bit of a hyperbolic claim. But not anymore, not anymore. The EBU (European Broadcasting Union) was willing to lose five countries, FIVE, in order to protect Israel. Now, with three of those countries you could debate how much that was worth to them. Ireland? We haven’t won in thirty years, does anyone know what we’re even doing anymore? Slovenia has never won the Eurovision. Iceland, I wouldn’t call them unsuccessful in the Eurovision, but they’ve never won it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest
So you could, maybe, just maybe, argue that the Eurovision was happy to drop Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia, because it didn’t really need them anyway. But this is a much, much harder case to make when it comes to the Netherlands and Spain. Spain is one of the “big five” countries, that makes such a massive financial contribution to the Eurovision, that they don’t even need to qualify, they’re in automatically:
THAT’S why I feel confident in asserting that the Eurovision is nothing more than a propaganda wing of the Israeli government. If it were simply the case that they were simply an amoral organization that didn’t much care whether they were supporting Israel or not, then they wouldn’t have hesitated to kick Israel out when they were in danger of losing one of their biggest financial backers.
What about the Netherlands? If caving to Israel to go against Spain was a financially bad move, than caving to go against the Netherlands was an optically and symbolically bad move, I mean, you’ve sort of killed the Eurovision by doing that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1956
The Netherlands was one of the first countries ever to compete in the Eurovision, one of the original seven. The EBU went against one of the founders of the Eurovision in order to protect Israel!
So sure, Ireland, Iceland, and Slovenia, you can make the argument, and no disrespect to any of those countries, I am Irish after all, that EBU saw them as dead weight that they didn’t need. But there is no reality in which they saw Spain or the Netherlands that way. They went against the two countries that were possibly two of the biggest friends of the Eurovision, because being under the thumb of Israel was more important to them.
I’m not a fan of Eurovision, not just because of Gaza, I never was, but I am both a musician and a music fan. So I understand that there’s people out there who love Eurovision. And I get it. In a way I get it more as a person who’s not really into sport, it’s the thing I like, music, but in a kind of a sport context! But in a way, that’s part of why I was never into it, a good song is a good song, a good song shouldn’t need to “win” anything. But I do get the appeal of the Eurovision. And I understand the Eurovision’s been a driving force in making LGBT people more acceptable in our society. The first transgender person I ever heard of, in fact, was Dana International. It’s a shame that she’s not just an Israeli but a support of the genocide in Gaza:
according to her, the non participation of these countries is “violent and insulting”. I mean, just to add a contrary perspective, I find what is being done to Gaza and the West Bank to be a bit, “violent and insulting”, but that’s just me. But anyway, my first introduction to the fact that trans people exist, was via the Eurovision, when I was 12 years old.
This trans representation continued for decades afterwards, with Bambi Thug, who is non-binary, representing Ireland in 2024. (Although they are from Macroom and therefore completely untrustworthy.) And also in 2024, Nemo became the first non-binary person ever to win the Eurovision, for Switzerland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemo_(singer)
It really is a shame. The Eurovision, and I’m saying this as somebody who’s not even into it, really had the chance to be a really moral organization, that stands up for the marginalized. They have helped make the world a more tolerant place for gay, trans and non-binary people. But you either stand for the marginalized or you don’t, and who is more marginalized than a people who are being traumatized, starved, bombed, and shot, for no other reason than that they are Palestinian? Saying you support the LGBT community but not the Palestinian community is as morally and logically absurd as saying you support black victims of hate crimes but not Asian ones. It makes no sense, and the EBU knows it. The Eurovision had its chance to be a force for good in this world, and it failed. It’s long past time to confine this hypocritical and cynical organization to the dustbin of history.
How Does Father Ted Figure Into All Of This?
Father Ted is the kind of tv show where I don’t know if I could explain to people who aren’t Irish or who were born after its broadcast what it means to me. Seeing this hilarious show the first time round, on a tv with like, fourteen channels I think, was really something special. The phrase, “I hear you’re a racist now Father,” has lived in my head rent free since the show was first broadcast.
The phrase was from an episode where Ted makes a horribly insensitive joke against the Chinese community, and word spreads quickly, in about thirty seconds actually, that he is a racist. The way the character says, “I hear you’re a racist” as if he’s talking about stamp collecting or another niche pursuit, has me in stitches every time.
RTE needed something to fill the slot that would usually be taken up by the Eurovision, and what they chose was, “A Song For Europe” the episode where Dougal and Ted enter the Eurovision, with, eh, this song:
The utter tunelessness of the song, the fact that the guitar isn’t even in tune, the fact that Ted struggles with a simple A minor chord, the utter farcical humour of it is something that’s been occupying my brain for over thirty years, and I’m glad Irish audiences were treated to this instead of the Eurovision.
But it gets better, one of the creators of Father Ted, Graham Linehan. Is a fucking nitwit and an asshole, is it possible to combine those two into one word, nithole? asswit? That’s the one, Linehan is an asswit! So, asswit Linehan was happy to be a single issue piece of shit for the last few years, targeting only the trans community:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/graham-linehan-twitter-trans-rights-b2253532.html
He has now expanded his portfolio from transphobia to also supporting the genocide in Gaza. And he is pissed that an episode of Father Ted he wrote is, effectively a part of a boycott of Israel, since it’s been shown instead of the Eurovision:
So a Father Ted episode is aired, and the Israel supporter who made that episode is really, really upset about it. That’s better comedy gold than Father Ted itself!
Celebrate The Victory, But Never Forget That It’s Not Enough
I am really, truly proud to be in one of only five countries that stood up to Israel during the Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, it’s possible RTE were motivated in part by cynical motives, but, the right thing was done, regardless of the reasons RTE did it. Ireland played a small part, though probably not as big a part as Spain and the Netherland’s part, in exposing the Eurovision as not a peace loving organization that celebrates the marginalized and downtrodden, but as an organization that will back Israel, and consequently Israel’s genocide, every step of the way.
Now that the media has mostly decided to remain completely silent on Gaza, this boycott of the Eurovision is more important that ever. It’s one of the few things keeping Gaza in the news, and keeping it in people’s thoughts. The fact that five countries have taken the decision to boycott is such a major turn of events that even news organizations that are ignoring Gaza feel they HAVE to report on that. One of the few reasons Gaza is in the news, right now, is because of the Eurovision Boycott.
So if you’re Irish, Icelandic, Slovenian, Dutch or Spanish, you should feel joy that your government did the right thing. They possibly did it for several reasons, but they did the right thing all the same. Celebrate that victory, that your government, and your people, said, no, we are standing firm against Israel.
But remember that this victory that was won is not the only victory that needs to be won. This isn’t over. This will never be over until Palestine is free, and Nehenyahu and a bunch of other sadistic monsters have been thrown in jail with the key very much thrown away. At Eurovision 2026, a great victory was won, not by singing or playing a musical instrument, but by refusing to participate in a cruel and despicable competition. That was yesterday’s victory though, and today, and tomorrow, there are more victories for the people of Palestine that need to be won.
FREE PALESTINE
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