Ireland will not participate in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest<\/a>, and it will not be broadcast by RT\u00c9, after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) confirmed that Israel will be allowed to take part.<\/p>\nBroadcasters in Slovenia, Spain, and The Netherlands also said they would be withdrawing from the competition.<\/p>\n
Iceland’s broadcaster RUV will consider its position on Wednesday and Belgium is also due to make its intentions known in the coming days.<\/p>\n
In a statement yesterday, RT\u00c9 said it “feels that Ireland\u2019s participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there”.<\/p>\n
“RT\u00c9 remains deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza during the conflict and the continued denial of access to international journalists to the territory,” the broadcaster added.<\/p>\n
The move has been welcomed by campaign groups, while others have condemned it.<\/p>\n
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign posted a message online saying “Well done RT\u00c9”.<\/p>\n
Its chairperson Zoe Lawlor said the group had been calling on the broadcaster to boycott the event for two years.<\/p>\n
She said: “We very much welcome RT\u00c9 standing firm in their decision and reiterating that they will neither participate in Eurovision 2026 nor broadcast it.”<\/p>\n
Contest winner ‘delighted’ with decision<\/p>\n
Charles Joseph McGettigan, who won the contest in 1994 with Paul Harrington, said he was “delighted” with RT\u00c9’s decision.<\/p>\n
“I am delighted that RT\u00c9 have stuck to their guns on this issue. They did withdraw from the competition earlier this year, and now, at a crucial point in time, they’ve decided we don’t want to enter a competition that Israel is involved in.<\/p>\n
“And you know, it’s particularly because at the moment journalists can’t go into Gaza City. Nobody knows what’s going on in there,” Mr McGettigan said.<\/p>\n
However, in a post on X, former minister for justice Alan Shatter criticised the move, saying it was an “international embarrassment”.<\/p>\n
He claimed it would “deny Irish artists of the career boosting opportunity to compete and the Irish public of both the enjoyment of our doing so and voting for their preferred song”.<\/p>\n
The Dublin Broadcasting branch of the National Union of Journalists also welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n
In a statement on X, it said: “We agree that to participate would be unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza, the targeted killing of journalists, & Israel\u2019s continued denial of international media access to Gaza.”<\/p>\n
The union’s Dublin branch chairwoman Emma O Kelly described the EBU\u2019s decision to allow Israel to remain in the competition as “indefensible”.<\/p>\n
She said: “We find it difficult to understand how the EBU, which after all is a union of broadcasters, can continue to support a state that literally targets and kills broadcasters \u2013 journalists and camera operators \u2013 and continues to deny its own broadcaster members access to Gaza.”<\/p>\n
Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, which attracts an audience of around 160 million viewers worldwide, 58 times since 1965, missing only the 1983 and 2002 editions.<\/p>\n
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