Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

On 14 November 2005, RTÉ announced that they had internally selected Brian Kennedy to represent Ireland in Athens.[1]

The song to be performed by Brian Kennedy was selected through the national final Eurosong 2006. Composers were able to submit their entries for the competition between 14 November 2005 and 27 January 2006.[2] At the closing of the deadline, 1,300 entries were received. A jury panel reviewed all of the submissions and selected four songs for the competition. The panel consisted of composer of the 1980 Eurovision winning song "What's Another Year" Shay Healy, 1994 and 1996 Eurovision winning songs "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" and "The Voice" Brendan Graham and singer and songwriter Paul Brady.[3] The finalist songs were presented on 11 February 2006.[4] On 13 January 2006, "Strong Enough" was disqualified from the competition due to not meeting EBU's eligibility criteria.[5]

The final was broadcast as a special edition of The Late Late Show held on 17 February 2006 and hosted by Pat Kenny. The national final also featured commentary from a panel that included former contest winners Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh, Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. Public televoting solely selected "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" as the winning song.[6]

The selection of Kennedy's song provoked something of a controversy. Not only is it written by himself, but his entry arrived in after the initial closing date for potential songs. Irish journalists, such as John Waters of The Irish Times, criticised the original judging process of the submitted songs which were reduced to three for The Late Late.