Eurovision Song Contest 1988
Country	Ireland
National selection
Selection process	Eurosong '88
Selection date(s)	6 March 1988
Selected entrant	Jump the Gun
Selected song	"Take Him Home"
Selected songwriter(s)	Peter Eades
Finals performance
Final result	8th, 79 points
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1987 • 1988 • 1989►

Thanks to Johnny Logan's win in Brussels in 1987, the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest was to be held in Dublin. The song "Take Him Home", written and composed by Peter Eades and performed by Jump The Gun was chosen to represent Ireland after winning the national final selection.

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.^[1]

Liam Reilly would go on to represent Ireland in the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest (finishing joint 2nd with France). Reilly would also compose the Irish entry in 1991.

"Take Him Home" was performed tenth in the running order on the night of the contest, following Switzerland and preceding Germany. At the close of the voting sequence, the song had received 79 points, placing eighth out of 21 songs.^[2]

Mike Murphy was providing the commentary for RTÉ 1 viewers, whilst Larry Gogan was commentating for listeners on RTÉ Radio 1. John Skehan was acting as spokesperson for the Irish jury.

Points awarded to Ireland[3] Score Country 12 points  Spain 10 points 8 points 7 points  Denmark  Germany  Norway  Sweden 6 points  Austria  Netherlands 5 points  Belgium  Portugal 4 points  France   Switzerland 3 points  United Kingdom 2 points  Finland  Turkey  Yugoslavia 1 point

Points awarded by Ireland[3] Score Country 12 points  Luxembourg 10 points   Switzerland 8 points  Norway 7 points  United Kingdom 6 points  Germany 5 points  Sweden 4 points  Denmark 3 points  Yugoslavia 2 points  Netherlands 1 point  Israel

• Irish national Final 1988 page