United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest especially for the UK televised selection contest, "A Song for Europe" (a programme which in later years would be renamed to "Making Your Mind Up"). At Eurovision in Dublin, they defeated Germany's Lena Valaitis by four points. The group went on to continued success, with 13 UK top 40 hits over the next five years. This would be the last UK win for 16 years, although the country continued to be competitive at the contest with four more second-place results during this time. In 1988, Scott Fitzgerald lost to Celine Dion, who was representing Switzerland, by just one point. In
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 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 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