Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001

Eurovision Song Contest 2001
Country	Ireland
National selection
Selection process	National Final
Selection date(s)	25 February 2001
Selected entrant	Gary O'Shaughnessy
Selected song	"Without Your Love"
Finals performance
Final result	21st, 6 points
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2000 • 2001 • 2003►

Gary O'Shaughnessy represented Ireland in the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen after winning the national final selection. O'Shaughnessy had previously competed in the 1997 and 1999 national selections, coming in 3rd and 5th place respectively. His song "Without Your Love" was one of seven songs presented in the national final, which was held on 25 February 2001 at the RTÉ television centre in Dublin. Louise Loughman hosted the event, and regional televoting was used to determine the winner.^[1]

Though O'Shaughnessy won with the most points from the televoting regions, he only received the third highest number of televotes overall, with 11,653. Runners-up InFocus received the most votes, with 13,356, and third-placed Fe-Mail received 12,271. O'Shaughnessy performed 12th in the running order on the night of the contest. "Without Your Love" went on to place 21st with 6 points, and was Ireland worst result in the contest at the time.

For the 2002 contest, the EBU abandoned the qualifying scheme it had used since 1997, in which countries were allowed to participate based on their average scores from the previous five years. Instead, only the thirteen highest scoring countries were invited to compete in Tallinn, along with the "Big Four" and the countries relegated from the 2001 contest. Under the five-year averages method, Ireland would have qualified for the 2002 contest, but the 21st-place ranking was not good enough under the new qualifying method. As a result of relegation, however, Ireland was given a guaranteed spot in the 2003 contest.

Points Awarded by Ireland

12 points	Denmark
10 points	Estonia
8 points	Sweden
7 points	France
6 points	Germany
5 points	Greece
4 points	United Kingdom
3 points	Spain
2 points	Slovenia
1 point	Lithuania

References