Dublin captain Sinéad Aherne said lifting the Brendan Martin Cup meant "absolutely everything" after her team finally got over the line in an All-Ireland final.
Three consecutive defeats to an all-conquering Cork side on the biggest day had raised questions over how Dublin would cope with the burden of expectation against Mayo today.
"Relentless Dublin" never panicked en route to All-Ireland victory pic.twitter.com/jMRpF2bm36
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) September 24, 2017
But they cut loose in the second half at Croke Park to win a thrilling ladies football decider by 4-11 to 0-11 and ease some of the pain of the last three years.
"For everybody who’s been involved with us over the last few years, it’s been a journey," Aherne told RTÉ Sport. "To get to this point, I’m just absolutely delighted.
"It’s a massive sense of achievement. I don’t think (the scoreline) reflected the game at all. Maybe when we got on top at the end they got a bit deflated.
"I know from the past experiences that it’s tough to take for Mayo but I’ve no doubt they’ll be back."
"To get to this point, I’m just absolutely delighted."
After a solid start from Mayo, Dublin took control early on and should have probably have been further ahead than 1-6 to 0-6 at the break.
Aherne missed a penalty following the incident that saw Mayo keeper Yvonne Byrne sinbinned and the Dubs spurned several other goal chances either side of the interval when their opponents only had 13 on the field.
But they kept creating opportunities and majors in the closing stretch from Sarah McCaffrey (2) and Carla Rowe finished the job.
"Mayo were two players down and we really hadn’t pushed home our advantage (at half-time)," the skipper, who scored 0-9 (7f), said.
"We just tried to emphasise that we’d go back to doing the basics and we could open them up and get width when they were at a numerical disadvantage.
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"We settled down in the second half and despite the fact that we probably had a few poor wides we persisted and got there in the end.
"While we missed a few chances, we kept plugging away and once we got that goal we hammered it home.
"The girls that came off the bench for us, Sarah McCaffrey with that goal, and we just pressed on from there, it was brilliant to see.
"I suppose in the end a bit of experience probably told in the second half when the game was there to be won."
