Ireland's National Song Contest

As stated earlier, Ireland's entry in Eurovision in 1965 heralded a new age for Showband talent. Competition to represent Ireland was a hot topic and in the early days, Ireland turned to its showband stars to help represent the country against Europe's finest.

The Irish National Song Contest has changed its format many times since starting in 1965. Early on the format consisted of heats from which three finalists would be picked, going through to the finals of the contest, which would included the best six-ten songs. In later years, Ireland would experiment with one singer singing all entries (a formula repeated in 2008 with little success).  As you can see from the list of entries below, most of the singers were from the ranks of the showbands and Ireland's folk scene in the early days, while in the mid to late 80's many songs were performed by the songwriters themselves.

Below is a listing of all the acts that competed in the Irish National Song Contest between 1965 and 1990!

Irish National Song Contest Site

For a complete listing of all the entries and winners from all the countries from 1956 through 2005, click here to go to the site which is managed by Arne Eilers. If hyperlink doesn't work, copy and past this: http://members.fortunecity.com/mcdeil69/ into your web browser.

To hear the complete song versions of all the Irish entries into the Eurovision, click here. Our thanks to Keith Mills who maintains a great website dedicated to the Eurovision song contest. His site features every Eurovision entry ever!