Calls to boycott Eurovision

Calls were made this week on Leeside for the Irish Eurovision entry to be withdrawn from the competition in Israel.

The first of the semi-finals was held on Tuesday night and the second semi-final will take place tonight with Ireland’s entry Sarah McTernan taking to the stage. The main event then takes place on Saturday.

A petition calling for McTernan not to sing in this year’s Eurovision has been signed nearly 7,000 times while another asked that RTÉ to withdraw from the competition has garnered more than 11,000 signatures. It comes as Cork City Council passed a vote calling on RTÉ to withdraw from it. The vote was held during a meeting of Cork City Council on Monday after a motion by Sinn Féin’s Mick Nugent.

His call came, he said, following the most recent assault on the Gaza Strip which resulted in civilian deaths. He added: “There are also concerns that the Eurovision will be a propaganda tool for the Israeli government at a time when international attention has switched off from the efforts to establish peace in the region.”

Workers’ Party Cllr Ted Tynan agreed with the motion as did Solidarity’s Fiona Ryan. Fianna Fáil Cllr John Sheehan made the point, however, that Israel is part of the EU Broadcasting Union and has the right to host it after they won it last year. He said: “They won it, so they have the right to host it. We can’t pick and choose who gets to host it after a country has won.”