page_title: Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015
section_title: At Eurovision
hierarchical_section_title: Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 / At Eurovision
caption_attribution_description: English: Eurovision Song Contest Vienna 2015: Molly Sterling Deutsch: Eurovision Song Contest Vienna 2015: Molly Sterling
context_page_description: Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Playing with Numbers", written by Greg French and Molly Sterling. The song was performed by Molly Sterling. The Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann organised the national final Eurosong 2015 in order to select the Irish entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. Five songs faced the votes of five regional juries and a public televote, ultimately resulting in the selection of "Playing with Numbers" performed by Molly Sterling as the Irish Eurovision entry. In the second of the Eurovision semi-finals, Ireland failed to qualify to the final, placing twelfth out of the 17 participating countries with 35 points.
context_section_description: According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 26 January 2015, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 21 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.
  Once all the competing songs for the 2015 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Ireland was set to perform in position 2, following the entry from Lithuania and before the entry from San Marino.
  In Ireland, the semi-finals were broadcast on RTÉ2 and the final was broadcast on RTÉ One with commentary by Marty Whelan. The second semi-final and final were also broadcast via radio on RTÉ Radio 1 with commentary by Shay Byrne and Zbyszek Zalinski. The Irish spokesperson, who announced the Irish votes during the final, was Nicky Byrne.
caption: Molly Sterling at a press meet and greet
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