| Year: | 1969 |
| Country: | Ireland |
| Preselection: | National final - juries |
| Preselection Date: | 16 February 1969 |
| Entrant: | Muriel Day and the Lindsays |
| Song: | The Wages of Love |
| Final Result: | 7th, 10 points |
Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 in Madrid, Spain. The participating broadcaster, RTÉ, selected the entrant through a national final, which was won by Muriel Day. Joined by the Lindsays, they finished 7th place with 10 points in the final on 29 March 1969.[1]
RTÉ opened a submission period for composers to submit songs between 6 November 1968 and 1 January 1969. Composers had to be Irish-born or live in Ireland and could only submit a maximum of two songs each.[2] RTÉ received 560 submissions and selected 8 songs from the received submissions and then assigned artists to those songs.[3] [4]
The fifth National Song Contest was held on Sunday 16 February 1969 from the RTÉ studios in Dublin and was broadcast on RTÉ Television, and hosted by Brendan O'Reilly. The winning song was decided by 10 regional juries throughout Ireland.[5]
The fifth National Song Contest is notable for featuring all four of Ireland's previous representatives (Butch Moore, Dickie Rock, Sean Dunphy, and Pat McGeegan), as well as the 1969 representative (Muriel Day) and the future 1970 representative (Dana).
| Draw | Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) | Points | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sean Dunphy | "Paper Boats" | Audrey Meredith | 3 | 5 | |
| 2 | Dana | "Look Around" | Michael Reade | 8 | 2 | |
| 3 | Butch Moore | "Too Late" | Joe Burkett, Andy Galligan | 2 | 8 | |
| 4 | Muriel Day | "The Wages of Love" | Michael Reade | 30 | 1 | |
| 5 | Dickie Rock | "Now Do You Believe Me?" | Jim Doherty | 6 | 3 | |
| 6 | Eleanor Nodwell | "Talking to Myself" | Frank Dunne, Dolores Rockett | 3 | 5 | |
| 7 | Pat McGeegan | "Johnny Dreamer" | George Meredith, Audrey Meredith | 5 | 4 | |
| 8 | Fiorenza Viani-Nolan | "1959" | Jim Doherty | 3 | 5 |
Muriel Day and the Lindsays performed 5th at the beginning of the startfield and finished 7th with 10 points.