After spending a bit last year to negligible effect, they've reined it in big style, sending a boy called Brendan Murray with a dirge called "Dying to try". Underwhelming and here
 An internal selection from the Oirish. Can you imagine the call to RTE? "Hi Siobhan, it's Nicky Byrne of Westlife, I'd like to be in Eurovision." Siobhan drops phone & shouts, "B'jesus. Donal! Cancel the qualifying show, we've got a Westlifer to be sure". etc etc. Sadly "Sunlight" isn't up to much. It's here
The Oirish are giving a young lass a chance in '15. Molly Sterling will be tickling the ivories and trying to garner enough support in a tricky semi-final to get " Playing with Numbers" through. Its touch and go, but I wish the 17 year old the best. It's here (at the bottom of the page)
Can-linn (feat. Kasey Smith) is the latest Irish stab at traditional Celtic folk which tends to have a predictable appeal. The ditty is "Heartbeat" and you can find it here, to be sure

The Tourist Guide says

"Take a place, ravage it with Atlantic rollers, give it music. Water it with liquid sunshine - call it Ireland. 
People it with wit and warmth and a love of language - call them Irish. So is it really surprising to find a pace of life in harmony with nature and your holiday dreams? The island of Ireland - exotically familiar, regionally diverse, authentically fresh and always welcoming.
"The past is a presence everywhere you look—in the stone circles and dolmens like mysterious messages left by the Celts, in the silent ruins of abbeys where monks once gathered the highest learning and most exquisite crafts of the age, in strategically placed castles that dominate the landscape and Ireland’s history. Celts, Vikings, Normans— they’re all still here."

Dublin

"Everything they say about Dublin’s great gourmet restaurants and the nightlife in Temple Bar is true, and there simply wasn’t enough time to shop and see all the historic sights during the days. I’ll just have to come back!"

Advertisement in an Irish Newspaper..

1985 Blue VW Golf, Only 15 km
Only first gear and reverse used
Never driven hard
Original tyres, brakes, fuel, and oil
Only 1 driver
Owner wishing to sell due to employment lay-off.
(Please See Picture)
c 10,000 BC Earliest settlers arrived in Ireland, in the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age period. They crossed by land bridge from Scotland. 461 St. Patrick dies, after introducing Roman Civilisation, & the Christian Church. 800 Viking Norsemen invade 999 Brian Boru defeats Vikings. 1272 English conquer Ulster 1541 Henry VIII declares himself king of Ireland. 1562 Elizabethan Wars 1641 Great Catholic-Gaelic rebellion for return of lands 1649 Oliver Cromwell invades 1798 Revolution 1845-9 Potato Famine - 2 million die 1886 Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin 1919-21 Irish War of Independence against Britain 1926 De Valera founds Fianna Fail. 1949 Republic of Ireland declared (26 counties) 1971 First British soldier killed by IRA in Belfast 1972 Jan 30: Bloody Sunday. British paratroopers shoot 13 civilians during civil-rights march. 1994 IRA declares cease-fire 1996 Ceasefire breaks down. Etc etc

An Irish team won a nude touch rugby competition in New Zealand even though most of them kept their clothes on.
Fergus Mather from Tipperary led a team against New Zealand at St Kilda beach in Dunedin.Fergus' team mates thought it was too cold to bare all. But he and the entire New Zealand team braved the winter weather and stripped off.

Fergus said he wished his mum could have seen his 2-1 victory. "She would have been so proud. It would have brought a wee tear to her eye," he said.

Famous Irish

 

Francis Bacon, Grace Kelly, Bram Stoker, W B Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Michael Flately (the Lord of the Daaance)
Roddy Doyle, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, Samantha Mumba, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Dana (Rosemary Scallon), Ernest Shackleton
Dermot Morgan, & of course the one, the only, Sir Terry Wogan

  
 

Life expectancy

 74.47 men 80.12 women
Airports 36
Radios 699 per 1,000 people
Internet Users 1198.4 per 10,000 people
Railway Network 1222 miles
Death Penalty abolished in 1990