They wowed Europe with their wackiness and their energeticperformance was one of the highlights of the night.
But Jedward, one of the acts tipped by the bookmakers to make thetop three in this year's Eurovision, only managed to finish eighth -- a reasonable result, but not exactly the outcome the Lucan ladshad been hoping for.
Trailing three places behind Jedward in the 11th spot was theUK's entry, boyband Blue, an established act with a back catalogueof hit singles, who hoped to claw back some Euro glory for theircountry and erase memories of last year's humiliation when the UKfinished last.
But despite being well-known and popular acts who sang theirhearts out on Saturday night, Jedward and Blue could only look onand wonder at what could have been as Azerbaijan's Ell and Nikkiwere crowned Eurovision champions with 221 points.
Almost immediately internet forums were buzzing with talk of geo-political voting, countries choosing to give top marks to theirneighbours rather than basing their opinions on the actual song.This system of voting has been particularly favoured by easternEuropean countries, although Spain and Portugal, and Cyprus andGreece, tend to award each other the top 12 marks.
Following this weekend's result, with another eastern Europeancountry winning Eurovision, it begs the question: is it time for theUK and Ireland to now call it a day?
On Digital Spy's Eurovision forum one angry UK poster said: "Ithink it's time for the UK to pull out. Do we really need to be apart of this show anyway? We have good musical talent here andplenty of successful musicians. It has become a show centred more ontactical voting between united countries and not about the bestsong."
And on Twitter fans of the contest also discussed the weekend'sresult, with one tweeting that while the UK's popularity seemed tohave waned across Europe, Ireland was still feeling the "Euro love".
Belfast actress and Eurovision fan Seainin Brennan said shebelieved Ireland should stick with the competition, pointing outthat it had won the event a record seven times.
"Ireland has Eurovision in its blood. Look at Riverdance'ssuccess story, promoting Irish culture all over world," she said.Defenders of the contest said the UK needed to enter better songs ifit wanted to win again. Its last Euro victory was in 1997 whenKatrina And The Waves topped the public vote.
Even the Daily Mail joined in the debate, claiming Jedward werethe victims of an Eastern European "stitch-up".
But while there can be no doubting the political voting that hasgone on in the past, changes have been introduced to try and makethe competition fairer for everyone.
For the past three years each participating country has putforward a jury, which decides 50% of the vote, with the other halfvoted for by the public. And this year there were six easternEuropean countries and six western European in the top 12, withItaly, Sweden and Denmark coming second, third and fourth.
The fact that host nation Germany won last year also proves thatother countries are in with a chance.
Although it's fairly easy to predict the way the votes will behanded out, the fact that so many western European countries wereplaced in the top 12 is a hopeful sign for the future of the songcontest and for countries like the UK and Republic.
SONG CONTEST CONTROVERSIES
1963: A "technical glitch" meant Norway's scores could not beheard by host Katie Boyle.
1968: Spanish dictator Franco rigged the contest to boost Spain'stourism industry. Cliff Richard's Congratulations was the favouritebut lost out to La La La by Massiel for Spain.
2000: Israel's entrants Ping Pong finished their song Be Happy byunfurling Syrian flags and calling for peace. Israel's broadcastingauthority disowned the entry but the truth eventually emerged thattwo of the group were journalists who wrote about cultural affairsfor the newspaper Ma'ariv.
CAPTION: Ireland's Eurovision entry Jedward reunited with theirfans after they arrived back to Dublin Airport yesterday MARKCONDREN
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