RTÉ has decided to show a popular 1996 Eurovision episode of Father Ted titled A Song For Europe, instead of the Eurovision Song Contest as their boycott continues.
15:08, 12 May 2026Updated 15:37, 12 May 2026
RTE will be airing Father Ted in place of Eurovision this year(Image: Channel 4)
After deciding to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest last year, Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ has decided to show the 20 year old Eurovision-themed episode of Father Ted instead of the contest.
In 2025, it was announced that five countries including Ireland would be boycotting Eurovision in protest over Israel’s participation. Israel’s participation has sparked controversy since its government launched extensive military operations in Gaza during October 2023.
Ireland, along with The Netherlands, Iceland, Spain, and Slovenia, confirmed their exit last December following the official green light for Israel’s involvement. This meant that all five countries decided not to send a participant to the competition.
Father Ted’s A Song For Europe will take the night slot on RTE(Image: E4)
With the 70th contest takes place in Vienna this week with a finale culminating on Saturday, it has been announced that as further boycott to the show, RTÉ will show the Eurovision-themed episode of Father Ted titled A Song For Europe which sees Ted and Dougal perform My Lovely Horse at Eurovision.
Ireland, Slovenia and Spain are boycotting event by also refusing to broadcast the final, while The Netherlands and Iceland have chosen to air the final in their countries.
The action has ruffled the feathers of Graham Linehan, the co-creator of Father Ted, who is now calling the move ‘antisemitic’. IN a message on X he said: “Please join me in demanding the resignation of RTE’s Director General for using Father Ted as a tool of antisemitic harassment”
The petition has gained just over 1,000 signatures, with a full statement that reads: “My name is Graham Linehan. I am the co-creator of Father Ted, one of the most beloved Irish television comedies ever made. I am writing this petition with anger, and with grief — for what RTÉ has become, and for what it is doing to Ireland’s reputation.
Graham Linehan has spoken out about the decision(Image: PA)
“RTÉ has chosen to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest solely because Israel is participating. This is not a principled humanitarian stand. It is antisemitism — the oldest hatred — dressed up in the language of human rights. Singling out the world’s only Jewish state for exclusion, while no such standard is applied to any other nation, meets the internationally recognised IHRA definition of antisemitism. RTÉ has not boycotted Russia, Belarus, or Azerbaijan. It has boycotted Israel. The message is clear.
“To compound this disgrace, RTÉ has chosen to fill the Eurovision slot on Saturday night with my show — the Father Ted Eurovision episode, “A Song for Europe” — as an act of pointed, gleeful counter-programming. I did not give my permission for Father Ted to be used as a prop in an antisemitic political gesture. I object to it in the strongest possible terms.
“This is not the Ireland I know. This is not the Ireland that gave Father Ted to the world. RTÉ’s institutional antisemitism is poisoning Irish public life, normalising Jew-hatred under the guise of solidarity, and it must be confronted.”
The petition is calling for three things. Firstly, “that RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst resign immediately, or be dismissed by the RTÉ Board and the Irish Government.” The petition also calls from an apology from RTÉ and that the Irish Minister for Media launch an “independent review of antisemitism within RTÉ’s editorial decision-making”.
In December, RTÉ said of the decision to now show the competition: “RTÉ feels that Ireland’s participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk.
“RTÉ 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.”
Earlier this month Linehan had a conviction for damaging a transgender campaigner’s mobile phone overturned. This came after Linehan, a prominent anti-trans activist, was involved in a confrontation with Sophia Brooks outside the Battle Of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19 2024.
RTÉ has been contacted for comment.