The Irish entry was not one of the ten acts chosen from fifteen to go through to the contest final on Saturday. However psephologist and Eurovision enthusiast Adrian Kavanagh says last night's outcome is not that rare an event.
“It’s not that unusual,” Kavanagh, who is author of the Eurovision Handbook 2014 explained to Newstalk Breakfast this morning. “We’ve made the last four finals. We missed on the two semi-finals before that and we missed out on another semi-final in 2005.”
Referencing the science around the competition, Kavanagh says last night's result for Ireland was unsurprising: “If you think about it there are a lot of countries trying to get out of a semi-final into a final. By the law of averages you should be expecting to miss out on a semi-final every three or four years.”
Kavanagh dismissed claims that geo-political voting affected Ireland’s score, stating: “They’ve changed the system since last year to balance that a bit more. There is now more impact by jury voting. I don’t think political voting was a serious problem last night.”
Can-Linn featuring lead singer Kasey Smith failed to impress judges during the semifinals in Copenhagen last night.
Feeling so full of irish pride!!! Thanks for all the beautiful messages of support gutted but thats the way the cookie crumbles sometimes <3
— kaseysmith (@kaseykaysmith) May 9, 2014
It is the fourth time we have missed out on a place in the final in the last 10 years.
Austria is currently the favourite to top the points scoring in Saturday's final.
Listen to Adrian Kavanagh break down the science behind winning the contest on Newstalk Breakfast this morning below:
