{"id":39287,"date":"2026-05-12T09:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/39287\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:53:13","slug":"ireland-to-air-father-ted-instead-of-eurovision-as-it-boycotts-song-contest-over-israel-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/39287\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland to air Father Ted instead of Eurovision as it boycotts song contest over Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s national broadcaster, RTE<\/a>, is set to replace the final of the 2026 Eurovision<\/a> Song Contest with a classic episode of the comedy Father Ted<\/a>, in a move highlighting growing international protest against Israel\u2019s participation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, RTE 2 will air \u201cA Song For Europe\u201d, the sitcom\u2019s Eurovision<\/a>-themed episode featuring priests Ted and Dougal performing \u201cMy Lovely Horse<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

This decision is part of a broader boycott, with Ireland, Spain, and Slovenia refusing to send competitors<\/a> to the 70th iteration of the song competition and opting not to broadcast the final, citing Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. The Netherlands and Iceland are also not sending acts to compete, but will still air the final.<\/p>\n

\"Dermot<\/p>\n

Dermot Morgan in Father Ted\u2019s \u2018My Lovely Horse\u2019 episode (Channel 4)<\/p>\n

The ongoing conflict in Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry estimates has killed 72,300 Palestinians since the October 7 attack, stands in contrast to Russia\u2019s ban from Eurovision following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

The boycott gained momentum after a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) general assembly in Geneva, where new rules were discussed to deter countries from organising campaigns for their acts.<\/p>\n

This followed concerns over the significant public votes received by Israel in 2025, where Israeli singer Yuval Raphael secured the largest number of public votes, ultimately finishing as runner-up after jury scores were factored in.<\/p>\n

Following the 2025 contest, RTE requested a breakdown of voting numbers from the EBU, while Spain\u2019s public broadcaster, Radio Television Espanola (RTVE), called for a \u201ccomplete review\u201d of the voting system to prevent \u201cexternal interference\u201d. RTE2 will also broadcast alternative programming during the semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Eurovision<\/p>\n

Eurovision semi-finals begin on Tuesday (Getty)<\/p>\n

In a statement issued in September last year<\/a>, RTE said: \u201cRTE feels that Ireland\u2019s participation would be unconscionable given the ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cRTE is also deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza, and the denial of access to international journalists to the territory, and the plight of the remaining hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Slovenian broadcaster plans to air a series of documentaries on the Middle East, themed \u201cVoices of Palestine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ireland holds a joint record with Sweden for the most Eurovision wins, with seven victories, the last being Eimear Quinn in 1996 with \u201cThe Voice\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s national broadcaster, RTE, is set to replace the final of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20858],"tags":[20859,20860,25031,574,3240,145,23758],"class_list":{"0":"post-39287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eurovision","8":"tag-eurovision","9":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2026","10":"tag-father-ted","11":"tag-gaza","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-rte"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}