How we love Ireland. It goes without saying of course. For a country with seven wins under its belt, and some of the biggest songs to come from the contest, they must be doing something right.
However, it was 1997 when we were last in the Emerald Isle, so we must be due a decent result. Ireland has tried several formats. One of those was You’re a star, a formal like the Pop X Idol Factor, and in 2004 it yielded today’s birthday boy Chris Doran. His gig came in the first year of semi-finals, and due to the rules at the time he’d automatically got a berth in the Grand Final. But that’s where his luck ended. Six of the top 10 places went to semi-final qualifiers. Chris still managed to get seven points, all from one country. Ireland gave eight to the same country. Hmmm. Nevertheless, until a country equals Ireland’s record, no one can take it away.
Chris is 40 today.
Happy birthday/Breithlá shona, Chris!