Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972

Ireland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1972 with the song "Ceol an Ghrá", written by Joe Burkett and Liam Mac Uistin, and performed by Sandie Jones. To date, this is the only entry from Ireland sung in Irish. The Irish participating broadcaster, Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), selected its entry through a national final. The song eventually finished in fifteenth place in the international final held at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.

The eighth National Song Contest was held on Sunday 13 February 1972, and was broadcast live from the Cork Opera House on RTÉ Television and RTÉ Radio, hosted by Mike Murphy. This was the first national song final in Ireland to be produced as an outside broadcast, away from the RTÉ studios in Dublin, where the previous seven finals had been held. This year, the number of songs in the final increased to ten. The winning song was decided by 10 regional juries, each consisting of six members, throughout Ireland.

Des Smyth had previously participated in the Irish national final in 1971, and finished in seventh place. Tina had finished in third place in 1968 with "One Love Two". Twink had appeared in the 1970 national final as part of the girl trio Maxi, Dick and Twink, who finished in second place behind Dana.

Mike Murphy commentated on RTÉ Television, and Kevin Roche with Liam Devally provided commentary for RTÉ Radio listeners. For the second year in succession, each of the 18 participating countries sent two jury members to the venue to cast their votes in vision, awarding between 1 and 5 points to each song, with the exception of their own country's entry. The criteria was that one juror from each country had to be over 25 years of age while the other had to be under 25 years, with a gap of at least ten years between their ages. Three countries voted together and this process was repeated a further five times.