Eurovision still hits high note with Irish audiences

DONNA and Joseph McCaul may have missed out on a place in tonight’s Eurovision, but most of us still love to watch it every year.

Three-in-four people feel the competition is worth looking at, a Lansdowne Market Research survey has revealed.

In the days leading up to this year’s event, 750 adults were asked their views on the event. Although interest in Ireland’s participation was mixed, few wanted it scrapped.

Almost half of those surveyed took an interest in the Irish entry each year.

Women were among the highest supporters, with one-in-two taking an interest in the contest, while men failed to be caught up in the glamour, with only 39% engrossed by it.

Results regarding the cultural and musical merit of the contest revealed Irish people are evenly split on whether to dismiss or endorse the event’s intrinsic worth.

One-in-three believe the country gets carried away with the Eurovision hype each year. However, a majority disagree Irish people take the event too seriously.

Failing to make it to tonight’s final, Joseph McCaul yesterday said “there is going to be no hope for Ireland” in future contests.

“Not being cocky or big-headed, but if you look back, we had one of the best performances there on the night,” he said.

“Everyone saw what happened and that’s how it’s going to be from now on. Unless the judges come back into it, there is going to be no hope for Ireland.”

Speaking on Morning Ireland yesterday, Joseph and Donna expressed their disappointment at not progressing from the semi-finals in Kiev on Thursday night with their song, Love.

The brother and sister duo said Ireland’s faith in future Eurovision success was looking doubtful.

“We did our best but we all know what happened with the block voting. Nobody can deny it and there is nothing that we can do about that,” said Donna.

The 20-year-old said some of the countries put through “didn’t deserve to be”, while other worthy contenders weren’t chosen “because they weren’t neighbours of the countries voting.”

Joseph dismissed claims their ages acted against them.

“Look at Dana, she was 16 when she sang in the Eurovision, so why not me? It is not because we were too young or the song was not right, it was perfect for Eurovision,” said the 17-year-old.

However the siblings, who are due back in Ireland tomorrow, are upbeat about their future.

“This is not going to put us down, we are still going to come back,” said Donna. “We are going to start our album and bring out another single and stay in music because that’s what we want.

“This is just the start for us, it was just a step up, an experience, and we are going to go on from this.”

Showing their support for the duo, their home town of Athlone is planning a homecoming party on Thursday.

The Eurovision Song Contest shall be shown tonight at 8pm on RTÉ 1.