Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ will air a classic episode of the sitcom Father Ted instead of broadcasting the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 , as part of a widening boycott over Israel's participation in the contest . RTÉ 2 is scheduled to show "A Song for Europe", the sitcom's famous Eurovision-themed episode, on Saturday night in place of the grand final taking place in Vienna.
The move follows Ireland's decision not to send a contestant to this year's competition, with RTÉ previously saying participation would be "unconscionable" because of Israel's war on Gaza and the mounting civilian death toll.
The broadcaster also cited concerns over the killing of journalists in Gaza and restrictions on international media access to the territory.
In the Father Ted episode, priests Father Ted and Father Dougal represent Ireland at Eurovision with the comedy song "My Lovely Horse", ultimately receiving "nul points". The episode remains one of the sitcom's most well-known instalments and has become a cultural reference point in Ireland's long history with Eurovision.
Other European broadcasters have also altered their Eurovision plans in protest, with broadcasters in Spain and Slovenia withdrawing from the competition, while Iceland and Netherlands are not send competing acts but are still expected to air the final.
Slovenia's broadcaster plans to air documentaries under the theme "Voices of Palestine", while Spain will replace the contest with alternative music programming.
Ireland shares the record for the highest number of Eurovision wins with Sweden, with seven victories in the competition.
The boycott gained momentum after growing controversy surrounding Israel’s participation in Eurovision during the war on Gaza and allegations of coordinated vote influence campaigns.
A New York Times investigation published this week found that Israel had spent more than $1 million on a state-backed Eurovision campaign linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu' s public diplomacy office, encouraging supporters to cast multiple votes for Israeli contestant Yuval Raphael during the 2025 contest.
The report said Israeli embassies and pro-Israel groups coordinated multilingual campaigns encouraging supporters to cast the maximum number of votes allowed for Israel’s entry. NTY reported that internal voting data suggested that the highly organised voting efforts were able to significantly influence televote results under Eurovision's system at the time.
Following the controversy, European Broadcasting Union introduced new restrictions on "disproportionate" promotional campaigns and reduced the maximum number of votes per viewer from 20 to 10.