Róisín Ingle mingled with the thousands of supporters in the Phoenix Park at the Irish team's welcome-home party
The boys were back in town - suited and booted and drinking champagne: Shay Given and his shy smile; Robbie Keane who couldn't stop grinning; Duffer; Mattie.
They emerged on stage in the Phoenix Park in their sharp suits, the best-looking boy band the country has ever seen. And the crowd went wild.
"OOOHHHH," said Janice (11) from the North Circular Road in Dublin. "I love Damien Duff. His face, his orange hair. And when he takes his top off, ooooohh jeepers."
Her friend Jamie (11) nearly fainted with delight. "Robbie, Robbie Keane; he is just massive. And Shay Given, I love all his freckles."
Even the sun came out to shine down on the more than 100,000 grateful supporters, a raging sea of green, white and orange stretching as far as the eye could see. So we didn't win the world cup but when the crowd sang Olé, Olé, Olé it felt a little like it last night.
The President spoke for us all as she raised a glass of bubbly to the Irish soccer team in Áras an Uachtaráin flanked by the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, the North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, his wife Jackie and the President's children, Emma and Sara. The Minister for Sport, Mr O'Donoghue, who had favoured a street calvalcade instead of the lark in the park, also made an appearance.
Dressed in an aquamarine suit, the President praised the "respect, courage and pride" the team showed in everything they did. Handing Mick McCarthy a John Rocha designed Waterford Crystal platter, she said Irish hearts had been breaking. "We all need grief counselling," she laughed.
McCarthy passed on the champagne and sipped water - "the lull before the storm" he said. It got easier to cope with the loss every day. But "it is disappointing there wasn't a better team at the World Cup but it just wasn't to be".
Robbie Keane took the news that he was now officially Ireland's number one heart-throb quite calmly. "I can't complain about that," he said. For the striker, the World Cup had been something he dreamt about since he was a little boy. "It has just been fantastic," he said.
It's amazing how the trauma of Roy Keane almost disappeared only to be swiftly replaced by the row over where to hold the biggest party since the last time an Irish soccer team came back from a World Cup.
Holding the hand of his young son, Sencha, broadcaster Sean Moncrief offered an explanation for the Park v Street controversy. "I have a theory that we were suffering from such psychological trauma after the match against Spain that we needed somewhere to vent it. So we needed to get angry about that," he said.
But all you could see were smiling faces and hardly anyone complained about being deprived of a cavalcade.
Someone who had been saying prayers for the team over the past few weeks was a former parish priest of Mick McCarthy's, Father Gerard Harney, from Co Mayo.
On holiday from the coach's home in Barnsley, he had come on his own but was surrounded by teenagers. "It's great to be here, a tremendous day," he said clutching a flag in his hand.
Dublin teenager Aran Hiraldo's loyalties had been divided for the Spain match. His father is Spanish, his mother Irish. "So I was happy whatever the result," he said leaning on the crowd control barriers. "But I really wanted Ireland to win". He thought the row about the venue for the homecoming was stupid. "That was just lazy people who didn't want to go very far to congratulate the team," he said.
Over the stage an arc of green, white and orange balloons danced in the breeze. You had to marvel at how this massive event had been organised so tightly in just a couple of days. Jim Aiken, who had been in charge of production, looked relaxed but admitted that his team had been working against the clock. "But everything is in place, and people are having a lovely time," he said.
The night really belonged to Mick McCarthy and his players who at times seemed non-plussed by the size and warmth of the reception. Everyone wanted to touch them, to talk about THAT goal, to commiserate about the penalties.
McCarthy asked President McAleese if he could raise a glass to his men in her house. "The players were truly magnificent and it's been a pleasure and privilege to work with them," he said. The pleasure has been all ours.