RTE’s Eurovision Irish Head of Delegation has blamed the station for being “underfunded” when selecting acts to represent us – as Wild Youth singer Conor O’Donohoe slams Eurovision chiefs hours after crashing out of the semi-final.
The band failed to make it through to the Grand Final, despite delivering a brilliant performance on stage at the Liverpool Arena.
Ireland hasn’t qualified for the Eurovision since 2018 when Ryan O’Shaughnessy represented us with his song, Together.
READ MORE: Ireland's Eurovision act slams song contest in scathing post after failing to qualify
In a now-deleted Instagram post, O’Donohoe shared his anger at EBU bosses - saying Ireland is “never given a chance”.
“We did everything we could. Michael Kealy [RTE’s Eurovision Head of Delegation] was amazing,” he wrote. “But the truth is they never give Ireland a chance, sorry if we let you down. We tried our best.”
RTE’s Eurovision boss Michael Kealy said: “We are extremely proud of Wild Youth - they put on a brilliant performance and were fantastic representatives for Ireland.”
Earlier in the day the band had said they would be hugely disappointed if they failed to make it through, and that they had ‘given it their all’.
On Wednesday, Wild Youth declined to do any press interviews after the loss.
But Mr Kealy hinted his agreement with some fans that the Late Late Show may no longer be the best platform when choosing our acts to represent us in the song contest.
“I would agree. I think the Late Late has served it well in a way because it has been the only vehicle of a sufficient scale that we can do. It is very limited in terms of scale but it is pretty much the best thing we can do in that studio.
“One of the things I always say and I’m not going to win any popularity contest is that RTE has been chronically underfunded for decades and it shows particularly when it comes to us putting on entertainment shows.
“I think we do news and current affairs and dramas very well but when it comes to entertainment you need scale to make it look as impressive as a show you would see in other European countries.
“Our facilities in RTE aren’t sufficient for shows like that.”
He said other smaller countries have much more “modern facilities” when it comes to broadcasting these types of shows.
Asked if he thought RTE will separate the selection process from the Late Late Show next year, he said: “I honestly don’t know at the moment because that’ll be a conversation to have with heads in the entertainment department in RTE and with the incoming Late Late Show team so I don’t know.”
Mr Kealy said “no one is trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes” when selecting songs to go through to the EuroSong special.
“It is a completely transparent process,” he said on RTE Radio 1.
He said he was devastated for Wild Youth.
"It’s quite an emotional thing . . . a lot of time and effort and emotional capital is spent on our Eurovision effort every year, and it’s devastating when we don’t get though to the final."
"The guys were all geared up and focused on the show last night but they had one eye on getting to the final on Saturday night.
"It is devastating when we don’t get through to the final. I feel for any artist that doesn’t get through. It’s a pressure cooker. You’re very exposed.
“They had a very clear vision of what they wanted to do. Conor had a clear vision. He wanted that gold look, he wanted to wear the spangly gold outfit.”
Mr Kealy – who has been the head of delegation for the last 10 years – said the band “owned the stage last night”.
“I thought the band did an amazing job at it.”
Mr Kealy said no one knows the “enormity” of walking out on the Eurovision stage.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have Nicky Byrne represent us who is no stranger to huge stages and he said this was unlike he anything hes’ ever done before because when you walk out on that stage you only get three minutes so it is not like you’re doing a full hour and a half set where you get three or four songs to warm up and by an hour into it you’re on fire.
“You’ve got to be on fire from the first second tat you’re on so it is extraordinarily difficult.”
Mr Kealy said he will continue as head as delegation as long as RTE want him
“I enjoy doing this and I will do it as long as RTE want me to do it. I know I’m not the most popular person on social media amongst some of the fans, but I always think of it as something like a run down train running on a fully maintained track and it is always late.
“Is getting rid of the driver going to fix it or do you invest on the infrastructure to improve the actual train itself so that would be my view on it.”
Ireland has taken part in Eurovision more than 50 times with a record-breaking seven wins, making Ireland the country which holds the most amount of wins.
The competition in the first semi-final was stiff and fans had dubbed it the “semi-final of death.”
But RTÉ's Eurovision Song Contest commentator Marty Whelan aired his frustrations at not getting through.
He said Wild Youth missing out on a place in the grand final is "very hard to fathom". Saying it feels like Ireland “no longer has any friends.”
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland, Whelan described the semi-final final result as "desperately disappointing" for Irish fans that had made the trip to Liverpool.
He said that the Dublin band had really put in the work "selling the song", only to have their dreams dashed.
"It's like we suddenly have no friends. We're like Billy-no-mates on this one," he said.
He added: "I think everything about the presentation was terrific. I think they really gave it everything."
The RTE star contended that Ireland is "always going to be fighting a fight" at Eurovision because "we're a little island on the edge of Europe".
"It's a very tough call. And there's nobody going to tell me that there is a better way to do this than what we do. One day, a song is going to hit. And when it does, that's going to do it."
The ten acts to make it through to the Grand Final were Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czechia, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia, and Norway.
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