Prior to the 2018 Contest, Ireland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 50 times since its first entry in. Ireland has won the contest a record seven times in total. The country's first win came in 1970, with then-18-year-old Dana winning with "All Kinds of Everything". Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row, as well as having the only three-time winner. In 2011 and 2012, Jedward represented the nation for two consecutive years, managing to qualify to the final both times and achieve Ireland's highest position in the contest since 2000, placing eighth in 2011 with the song "Lipstick". However, in 2013, despite managing to qualify to the final, Ryan Dolan and his song "Only Love Survives" placed last in the final. The Irish entries in 2014, "Heartbeat" performed by Can-Linn featuring Kasey Smith, in 2015, "Playing with Numbers" performed by Molly Sterling, in 2016 "Sunlight" performed by Nicky Byrne, and in 2017 "Dying to Try" performed by Brendan Murray all failed to qualify to the final.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
On 31 January 2018, RTÉ announced Ryan O'Shaughnessy as the Irish entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Together".
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 8 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Ireland was set to perform in position 18, following the entry from Switzerland and preceding the entry from Cyprus.
Semi-final
Ireland performed eighteenth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Switzerland and preceding the entry from Cyprus. At the end of the show, Ireland was announced as one of the ten countries who qualified to the grand final, making it their first qualification since 2013. Following the semi-final, Ryan O'Shaughnessy participated in a press conference with the other winners in which they drew which half of the final they'd perform in. Ireland was drawn to perform in the second half of the grand final. It was later revealed that Ireland placed sixth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 179 points: 108 points from the televoting and 71 points from the juries.
Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
Points awarded to Ireland
Split voting results
The following five members formed the Irish jury:
Tom Dunne – Chairperson – musician, singer, songwriter, radio presenter
During the Chinese broadcast of the first semi-final on Mango TV, both Albania and Ireland were edited out of the show, along with their snippets in the recap of all 19 entries. Ireland was censored due to its representation of a homosexual couple on-stage. In addition, the LGBT flag was also blurred out from the broadcast. As a result, the EBU terminated its partnership with the Chinese broadcaster, explaining that censorship "is not in line with the EBU's values of universality and inclusivity and its proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music." The termination led to a ban on televising the second semi-final and the grand final in the country. A spokesperson for the broadcaster's parent companyHunan TV said they "weren't aware" of the edits made to the programme. Ireland's representative O'Shaughnessy told the BBC in an interview, "they haven't taken this lightly and I think it's a move in the right direction, so I'm happy about it."
