Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988

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Eurovision Song Contest 1988
Country	Ireland
National preselection
Preselection process	National Final
Preselection date(s)	6 March 1988
Selected entrant	Jump The Gun
Selected song	Take Him Home
Finals performance
Semi-final result	N/A
Final result	8th of 21 (79 points)

Thanks to Johnny Logan's win in Brussels the year before, the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Ireland's capital city, Dublin. The song "Take Him Home," written and composed by Peter Eades and performed by Jump The Gun was chosen to represent Ireland after it won the national final selection. Held on 6 March at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, the national final was hosted by Marty Whelan (who would provide commentary for RTÉ's broadcast of the Eurovision beginning in 2000), and Maxi, who had represented Ireland as a soloist in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, and again as part of the group Sheeba in 1981. Eight songs competed in the event, and the winner was selected by a panel of twelve "experts," each of whom awarded each song a score from one to eight points. One member of the panel was Sandy Kelly who had represented Ireland in the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest as a member of The Duskeys.^[1]

[edit] The Selection

Peter Eades, the lead singer of Jump The Gun, had competed in Ireland's national final selection in 1980, in which he ranked shared fifth. Liam Reilly would go on to represent Ireland in the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest, and compose the Irish entry in the 1991 contest.

[edit] At Eurovision

"Take Him Home" was performed tenth in the running order on the night of the contest, following Switzerland and preceding Germany. At the close of the voting sequence, the song had received 79 points, placing eighth out of 21 songs.

[edit] Points Awarded to Ireland

[edit] Points Awarded by Ireland^[2]

12 points	Luxembourg
10 points	Switzerland
8 points	Norway
7 points	United Kingdom
6 points	Germany
5 points	Sweden
4 points	Denmark
3 points	Yugoslavia
2 points	Netherlands
1 point	Israel

[edit] References