Held on 6 March 1988 at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, the national final, "Eurosong '88" was hosted for the second year in succession by Marty Whelan (who would provide commentary for RTÉ's broadcast of the contest from 2000 onwards, although he did provided the TV commentary once before, in 1987), and Maxi, who had represented Ireland as a soloist in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, and again as part of the group Sheeba in 1981. Eight songs competed in the event, and the winner was selected by a panel of twelve "experts," each of whom awarded each song a score from one to eight points. One member of the panel was Sandy Kelly who had represented Ireland in the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest as a member of The Duskeys.