The September song of the west rang out sweetly in Croke Park yesterday. The old stand pondered the lonely, rural aspect of The Fields of Athenry. The dressingrooms were filled with soft voices, many speaking in Gaeltacht Irish.
Galway, so long the brand leaders in the matter of big-day disappointments, won a splendid All-Ireland football final to take the title back across the Shannon for the first time in 32 years.
In front of 65,886 paying customers, they beat a Kildare team who had arrived in Croke Park off the back of an even longer famine, 70 years, but who were distracted by the unprecedented hype and expectation within the county. They were hindered, too, by the loss of their full-back, Ronan Quinn, through injury.
In quiet moments, Kildare people will point to the mitigating circumstances which contributed to this defeat, but the stark fact is that they were overwhelmed in the second half by a Galway side which played with a zest and self-belief which many had thought was lost on teams from that part of the world.
Galway last played in an All-Ireland final 15 years ago and contrived somehow to lose then to a Dublin team weakened by three sendings-off. In winning yesterday, they provided their own therapy and at last achieved closure on that painful defeat.
The party begins in earnest today when the team attends a reception in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin at lunchtime before heading home for a civic reception in Tuam tonight.
There, one man will be celebrated above all others. It is the birthright of great Galway teams to have special forwards, and yesterday Jarlath Fallon consummated the promise he has shown throughout his career with a second-half performance which caused Kildare visibly to wither.
It is feared in Galway that Fallon might have played his last match for the county. He plays rugby with Galwegians and Connacht and the financial inducements offered by the rugby code may lure him away from Gaelic football.