Six songs faced the votes of four regional juries and a public televote, ultimately resulting in the selection of "Et Cetera" performed by Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy as the Irish Eurovision entry.

Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter).

[4] In 2008, RTÉ had set up the national final Eurosong to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ireland, with both the public and regional jury groups involved in the selection.

[5][6][7][8][9] Eurosong 2009 was the national final format developed by RTÉ in order to select Ireland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

[15] All of the submissions were evaluated based on criteria consisting of suitability of the song for Eurovision as well as quality, experience and stage appeal of the artist.

[19][20] Following the 50/50 combination of votes from four regional juries and public televoting, "Et Cetera" performed by Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy was selected as the winner.

[21][22] Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Et Cetera" as the Irish Eurovision entry.

On 17 April, Mulvey and Black Daisy performed during the UKEurovision Preview Party, which was held at the La Scala venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.

[23] On 18 April, Mulvey and Black Daisy performed during the Eurovision Promo Concert, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Marga Bult and Maggie MacNeal.

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.