Ireland's national broadcaster, RTÉ, has decided to air a classic episode of the sitcom Father Ted instead of this year's Eurovision final, as part of a boycott protesting Israel's participation in the song contest. The episode, titled 'A Song for Europe' from 1996, features characters Father Ted and Father Dougal performing the infamous song 'My Lovely Horse', which earns them zero points.
Controversy Over the Boycott
The move has sparked criticism from Graham Linehan, one of the creators of Father Ted, who accused RTÉ of using the show as 'a tool of antisemitic harassment' and described the programming decision as 'an act of pointed, gleeful counter-programming'. He called for the resignation of RTÉ's director-general, Kevin Bakhurst.
However, the Irish news site Extra.ie praised the decision as 'genius trolling' and referred to it as 'my lovely boycott'.
International Response
Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and Iceland have also declined to send competitors to the Eurovision final, which will be held in Austria under the motto 'united by music'. Instead, Slovenia's broadcaster will air documentaries under the theme 'Voices of Palestine', while Spain's broadcaster will run a music programme called 'The House of Music'. The boycott follows calls for the European Broadcasting Union to change rules regarding voting campaigns, after concerns that Israeli singer Yuval Raphael received the largest number of public votes last year and finished second overall.
The Father Ted Episode
'A Song for Europe' is one of the most famous episodes of the sitcom, which aired on Channel 4 from 1995 to 1998. The show follows the lives of wayward priests and their housekeeper on the fictional Craggy Island. In the episode, Ted and Dougal represent Ireland with a tuneless song about a horse, chosen because it is so dreadful that it will prevent Ireland from winning and incurring the cost of hosting the next Eurovision. The plot mirrors a widespread myth that Ireland deliberately selected a weak entry, 'Rock 'n' Roll Kids', in 1994 to avoid hosting, but it ended up winning. In the Father Ted episode, the plan succeeds, and the priests earn zero points.
Ireland's Eurovision success peaked in 1996 with a seventh win, a record matched only by Sweden. Some observers attribute Ireland's subsequent defeats partly to the decision in 2008 to enter Dustin the Turkey, a children's puppet that performed 'Irelande Douze Pointe' from a shopping trolley.
