Ireland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 with the song "Take Him Home", written by Peter Eades, and performed by Jump the Gun. The Irish participating broadcaster, (RTÃÂ), selected its entry through a national final. In addition, RTÃÂ was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion in Dublin, after winning the with the song "Hold Me Now" by Johnny Logan.
(RTÃÂ) held on 6 March 1988 at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, the national final, Eurosong '88, hosted for the second year in succession by Marty Whelan (who would provide commentary for RTÃÂ's broadcast of the contest from 2000 onwards, although he did provided the television commentary once before, in 1987), and Maxi (who had represented as a soloist, and again as part of the group Sheeba). 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 as a member of The Duskeys.
Liam Reilly would go on to represent (finishing joint 2nd with France). Reilly would also compose the Irish entry .
"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.
Mike Murphy was providing the commentary for RTÃÂ 1 viewers, whilst Larry Gogan was commentating for listeners on RTÃÂ Radio 1. RTÃÂ appointed John Skehan as its spokesperson to announce the Irish jury's votes.