Ireland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song "Chance of a Lifetime", written by John Kennedy, and performed by Pat McGeegan. The Irish participating broadcaster, (RTÃÂ), selected its entry through a national final.
The contestants in the Irish National Final were decided by two semi-finals, where three were chosen from the first which was held on 6 February with the second being held on 20 February. The Final was held on 3 March 1968 and was broadcast on RTÃÂ TV from Dublin. All three shows were hosted by Brendan O'Reilly.
The fourth National Song Contest consisted of two semi-finals and a final, held by (RTÃÂ) in its studios in Dublin, hosted by Brendan O'Reilly. This was the first time that an Irish national final had a semi-final and remained the only time until 1996.
RTÃÂ opened a submission period for composers to submit songs between 27 October 1967 and 1 January 1968. Composers had to be Irish-born or live in Ireland and could only submit a maximum of two songs each. RTÃÂ selected 16 songs from the received submissions.
The exact results for the semi-finals are unknown. Although three songs were intended to qualify from each semi-final, a mistake where song 'M' ("Gleann na Smól") was accidentally announced as having qualified instead of song 'N' ("Chance of a Lifetime"), meant that both songs qualified from the second semi-final.
The final was held on 3 March 1968 at the RTÃÂ studios in Dublin, hosted by Brendan O'Reilly. The results were decided by 10 regional juries.
Ireland started at number 14 in the startfield and finished 4th with 18 points.