Graham Linehan: Ireland’s Eurovision Boycott is Antisemitic

Graham Linehan, the co-creator of Father Ted, has accused Ireland’s state broadcaster of antisemitism because of its decision to boycott Eurovision over Israel’s participation and broadcast an episode of Father Ted instead. The Telegraph has the story.

RTÉ is one of five public channels across Europe to pull out of the anniversary show in Vienna because of Israel’s participation and its war in Gaza.

Linehan, who co-created Father Ted, said he objected “in the strongest possible terms” to the comedy being shown in place of the contest’s grand final. He accused the Irish broadcaster of using his show as “a tool of antisemitic harassment” and demanded the resignation of the Director-General.

“Please join me in demanding the resignation of RTE’s Director General for using Father Ted as a tool of antisemitic harassment,” he wrote on X.

Sharing a link to a petition calling for the departure of Kevin Bakhurst, he added: “I am writing this petition with anger, and with grief – for what RTÉ has become, and for what it is doing to Ireland’s reputation.

“RTÉ has chosen to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest solely because Israel is participating.

“This is not a principled humanitarian stand. It is antisemitism – the oldest hatred – dressed up in the language of human rights.

“Singling out the world’s only Jewish state for exclusion, while no such standard is applied to any other nation, meets the internationally recognised IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of antisemitism.

“RTÉ has not boycotted Russia, Belarus or Azerbaijan. It has boycotted Israel. The message is clear.”

Linehan continued: “To compound this disgrace, RTÉ has chosen to fill the Eurovision slot on Saturday night with my show – the Father Ted Eurovision episode, ‘A Song for Europe’ – as an act of pointed, gleeful counter-programming.

“I did not give my permission for Father Ted to be used as a prop in an antisemitic political gesture. I object to it in the strongest possible terms.

“This is not the Ireland I know. This is not the Ireland that gave Father Ted to the world.

“RTÉ’s institutional antisemitism is poisoning Irish public life, normalising Jew-hatred under the guise of solidarity, and it must be confronted.”

As 200 million viewers tune in for the contest on Saturday night, Irish viewers of RTÉ2 will be treated to one of the best-known episodes of the beloved sitcom.

In ‘A Song for Europe‘, Fathers Ted and Dougal enter the “Eurosong” competition with a minute-long song called ‘My Lovely Horse’.

The episode first aired in 1996 after Ireland had won Eurovision four times in five years. In 2014, an Irish parliamentary committee rejected a public petition to enter ‘My Lovely Horse’ as Ireland’s entry in the 2015 contest.

The Netherlands and Iceland are also not sending acts to compete in Eurovision, but will air the final.

Russia was banned from Eurovision after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but Israel has continued to compete.

Worth reading in full.