Thirty-three years and a month after Jack Charlton lamented that "we drank very little" to the hordes in College Green, the Irish women's football team returned home to a rousing welcome in Dublin after their historic first trek to a World Cup.
A crowd estimated to be 8,000 gathered in front of the GPO in the centre of O'Connell Street, closed to traffic for the evening, to greet the slightly jetlagged trailblazers back from their travels.
The fans started filing in before 6pm for what was supposed to be a 6.30 kick-off, though that was only ever a guestimation.
By the promised start time, the assembled were told breathlessly that the team had left their hotel with a garda escort, while the big screen tracked their progress via the bus dashcam.
"They're going through Castleknock, Blanch, Clonsilla and you know how it works, the louder you cheer, the faster they go," the hype-man and master of ceremonies Dave Moore told the crowds, not entirely accurately.
While young and old, men and women were all present, one demographic was especially prominent - young girls. Young girls everywhere, lining up against the railings, being perched on shoulders further back.
Many were bearing signs honouring their particular heroes. Katie McCabe was definitely winning on that front, though one sign singled out Jamie Finn and another namechecked Abbie Larkin, who announced herself with a thrilling cameo against Australia - there was a fair-sized Ringsend contingent present.
Mick and Betty Pender from Ashbourne were among those present. Mick - a former Pat's player and one-time coach of the Irish homeless team - said he knew a number of the girls through emerging talent programmes through his years coaching in Swords and Finglas.
Their female grandkids all play football and attend every women's international match religiously. "It's a girls' day out," Mick adds. "No men allowed." Though they did note that their grandson was also a soccer and GAA player, and happened to be playing in the half-time game at Croke Park last Sunday.
It was closer to 7pm when the bus pulled up on the city's main thoroughfare from the Parnell Street side.
First, Vera Pauw and her backroom team were introduced to the crowd, the Dutch manager appearing entirely unruffled by the speculation around her future and bouncing up and down to the Dropkick Murphy's with an enthusiasm that may have caused the stage to buckle.
Then, the team were introduced one by one. Most were present, though a few, most notably Denise O'Sullivan were absent due to club commitments.
Ireland's captain and leading billboard star Katie McCabe was first up to be interviewed, where she was asked the vital question - did she mean to score direct from the corner in Perth?
"Yeah, obviously I meant it... No, that was meant for Louise Quinn's head," McCabe laughed, spinning around to see where the centre-half was positioned behind her.
When it was put to McCabe that kids were more likely to have Ireland shirts with 'McCabe' on the back than Manchester United shirts with 'Rashford' on the back, the winger replied "Well, definitely not him anyway!"
In a discussion which unsurprisingly sidestepped the matter of the captain's recent pithy Twitter output, McCabe promised it was "just the start" for this team.
"Honestly, we're only just getting started, we've got a taste of it now," McCabe told the crowd. "There's so much more potential and growth within this group... Buy your ticket for the Aviva Stadium in September!"
There were no visible or obvious signs of awkwardness between captain and manager, since their much publicised disagreement on the pitch against Nigeria.
As of yet, the FAI have yet offer Pauw a new contract, much to the manager's annoyance, and during the week said they would be conducting a "full and comprehensive review" into the team's performance.
On the stage in O'Connell Street, Pauw didn't seem especially preoccupied with the outcome of the review.
"We're proud, we've done well," Pauw announced. "Unfortunately, we couldn't get through the group phase but we've shown the world that we are coming. We're getting there.
"Be with us because next tournament, we go for medals."
More players were called up for a few words.
Ireland's long-standing defender Niamh Fahey refused to bow to overwhelming moral pressure to officially postpone her retirement. After the din died down, the one-time All-Ireland LFC winner, said she hadn't decided yet.
"I heard Quinner [Lucy Quinn] saying I should retire," Fahey joked, ignoring the rest, who demanded the opposite.
Her central defensive partner, Birmingham City's Louise Quinn, disclosed to the crowd that Tom Brady's first act as part-owner of the club would be to sign Katie McCabe.
This homecoming reception was accompanied by debate about whether it was warranted at all, given the team's ultimate failure to escape the group
Certainly, had the men's team been threatened with a homecoming shindig after Euro 2012, they'd have probably offered a two-word response.
The context here is rather different, of course. As Moore noted in his conversation with McCabe, "No one spanked us" in Australia.
Also, this was a maiden voyage at a major tournament for the women's team, coming six years after their famous press conference in Liberty Hall, demanding better standards and conditions.
At the last Irish World Cup homecoming in the Phoenix Park in 2002, Joe Duffy diagnosed various Spanish and Saudi Arabian defenders from afar with 'Damian Duff dizziness', a no doubt disorientating condition from which they have hopefully recovered. No such concern was extended to shellshocked opponents this time around, apart from the Aussie home fans who were struggling to get tickets on account of the strength of the Irish support in Sydney.
The handlers may have had some nervous moments when it was announced they would be singing a song, though they needn't have worried. Donegal's Amber Barrett, who wrote her name into Irish football folklore with the crucial goal in Hampden Park which sealed qualification, belted out the Wild Rover, the crowd joining in on the familiar singalong chorus.
And then they were whisked away, the media kept at arm's length throughout.
One player who plotted a different route to the rest was Sinead Farrelly, a late recruit to the cause after eight years out of the game and one of Ireland's classiest players down under.
While the bus headed north up O'Connell Street, the stylish winger walked the opposite direction past the GPO, in the company of friends after an Indian summer to remember.
