Pollster Kevin Cunningham explains how the nature of Eurovision voting influenced the outcome again this year
For the second year in a row, the Eurovision vote from the Irish public gave 10 points to Israel. Indeed, the public vote across Europe put Israel into second place overall. At a time of much outrage at Israel’s actions in Gaza, why did the public in Ireland award 10 points to their song?
Dr Kevin Cunningham is a lecturer in politics at TU Dublin and the founder of the Ireland Thinks polling company and he explains that the nature of Eurovision voting influenced the outcome.
First, it’s a problem of ‘diffuse alternatives’. “If Israel were on the…