Irish fans have all been through a protracted bout of glow-basking in recent days.
The now historic video of the winning goal against Hungary (feat. Ray Houghton's shout heard around the world) has clocked almost as many views as the final scene of the Sopranos.
The video has been experienced and soaked up from every conceivable angle, people savouring its many details and dimensions the way one would a Picasso painting.
From Caoimhin Kelleher's perfectly flighted delivery, containing just the right amount of hang-time to enable the Irish players to gather under the ball and increase the dread in the Hungarian defence.
To Liam Scales' brave leap and glancing flick on, helping the ball into the 'corridor of uncertainty' in the six- yard box. And then Troy Parrott's extraordinary finish, even more wondrous than his casual dink 15 minutes earlier.
Quite how he managed to force the ball into the net in that situation is still something of a mystery. With the goalkeeper Dibusz advancing, it seemed the only way Parrott could score was to brush the ball downwards with the sole of boot, directing it under the left arm of the keeper and inside the post.
90+5mins: 🇭🇺 2-3 🇮🇪
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 16, 2025
Ireland holds its breath, on the last throw of the dice... Hattrick for Parrott 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮
📺 @rte2 @rteplayer https://t.co/xaKTb2LBVG
📻 @rteradio1 https://t.co/PEszeaDYyf
📱Updates: https://t.co/TC5xt2IxRd pic.twitter.com/Ags3WrAwOz
It seems clear now that we were all sleeping on the extent of young Troy's rejuvenation in the Eredivisie. We'd heard tell that he was having a ball out in the Netherlands and had re-discovered his form. There'd be the odd snippet on the news of him tucking away a penalty against Feyenoord or someone. But few people had reckoned with anything like this.
It goes without saying it's the most extraordinary week that any Irish player has ever had in the shirt, the kind of scenario that a director of a Carlsberg ad might have cobbled together for a World Cup promo.
It's now dawning on people what a loss he was for the disastrous September window, while he only made cameo appearances in October.
In the second half in Budapest, he had a terrific foil in Finn Azaz. Azaz, who had completely failed to replicate his March form in the rest of the campaign, dropped deeper into the pocket in the second half and almost resembled an American football quarter-back, continuously clipping dinked balls for the Ireland attackers, which caused consternation among the jittery Hungarian defence.
The Hungarians clearly have their own complex around reaching World Cups. They were a ball of anxiety in the final 20 minutes of the game, incapacitated by every lofted through ball as time wound down.
Back home, pub CCTV footage became the nation's favourite content producers, stepping into the vacuum recently vacated by the Traitors. When Parrott (above) was interviewed by the BBC, they split-screened a close-up of his smiling face watching the footage from the Woolshed in Dublin, the striker confirming afterwards he is responsible for at least 500 of the views of the video of his hat-trick goal.
The Dublin airport hungover fan vox-pop, a staple of the Charlton era, came back into vogue on Monday afternoon.
Yesterday, RTÉ released a slo-mo of the goal, soundtracked by M83 (successors to Sigur Ros and Ludivico Einaudi as kings of the sporting montage), which captured better than anything else the wide-eyed joy of every player and sub who set off in pursuit of Parrott.
Our Icelandic gaffer stood slightly aloof from the celebrations. While his players and most of his staff were in a state of writhing ecstasy on the floor, the manager resembled a tolerant father watching his children gambol around the playground.
You have watched The Moment nearly 30 million times already, why not watch it once or twice more, in super slow motion#coybig #troyparrott pic.twitter.com/AwyHNwD902
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 18, 2025
His reign has followed a strange narrative pattern so far. Early despondency followed by a sense of tentative improvement and healing, the latter of which was thought to have been revealed as pure illusion after the disaster in Yerevan.
Some of the residual pro-Kenny loyalists - while ultimately routed in the famous culture war - were notably quick to dismiss him as a random jobber who had no business being in charge of the Irish team.
As late as last Wednesday, it was assumed he was headed for the exit door, amid reports that the Indonesians were tapping him up. He would soon be remembered as a bizarre and pointless stop-gap between the reigns of Stephen Kenny and Duffer - occupying a similar place in the public mind to Mick McCarthy's second stint.
That's all changed now that he has presided over two of the most sensational results of the past decade. He'll certainly be the head coach in March and likely beyond that.
Even his moniker 'The Dentist' - deployed as a term of derision before this week, relentlessly so by Eamon Dunphy - has suddenly taken on the air of a cool alter-ego. 'The Dentist will see you now' memes are springing up, with AI generated images of a Heimir about to perform root canal surgery on Cristiano Ronaldo.
After all their exertions, it seems an offensively modest reward that Ireland are only into a four-way play-off next March and not even seeded at that. When the after-glow from Sunday fades, it would be easy for resentment to fester over this.
Smaller UEFA nations, it would seem, are not quite seeing the full benefit of this grossly inflated World Cup, for which it was supposedly going to be harder not to qualify.
Not for the first time, we cast our mind back to our dog-eared copy of Brian Glanville's World Cup history and the great man's genuine disgust on Ireland's behalf that, having knocked out Holland, they were still obliged to play a two-legged inter-confederation play-off against Iran.
While this was successfully navigated at the time, it did have some adverse consequences down the line as a soon to be released feature film will likely remind us.
Any notion that they were going to be placed in Pot 2 and earn a home tie next March was quickly cut down on Tuesday, as Wales dispatched North Macedonia with shocking relish in Cardiff. The same evening, the Scots stole some of our viral thunder, qualifying for a first World Cup since 1998 in a ludicrously entertaining 4-2 win over Denmark in Hampden Park.
Ireland have come through just three of nine play-offs in which they've been involved, the aforementioned Iran game, the Euro 2012 qualifiers when they pulled the jackpot ball and drew Estonia and for Euro 2016 when Jonathan Walters stuck twice to see off Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Theoretically, this will be harder again, with one team coming through from a four-team bracket, with Ireland destined to be away to one of Wales, Czechia, Poland or Slovakia in the semi-final.
But following the momentous events of last week, belief has returned. There is a sense that this Irish team are inhabiting bonus territory and anything could happen.
Rarely has the previously settled narrative on a sports team shifted so violently in such a short space of time.
Can Parrott's form be sustained? Will Seamus Coleman still be as vibrant a presence as ever. Can Evan Ferguson find his goal-scoring form and re-discover his confidence?
These are intriguing questions as we look ahead to March? But first, the draw.
Watch the FIFA World Cup play-off draw on Thursday from 12pm on RTE Player and the RTÉ News Channel. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport
