If there aren't bonfires on the Fijian island of Rotuma tonight there should be, writes Tom Humphries. A son of the soil and the sand has triumphed. There should at least be fireworks.
Long, long after yesterday's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final had ended, a tousle-haired figure stood in the middle of Croke Park.
Seán Óg Ó hAilpín was wearing a tracksuit top, he was giving interviews, he was having his photograph taken and he was signing autographs. A hero's work is never done.
For those who made it to Croke Park yesterday to watch Cork defeat Galway with at least as much ease as the five-point margin suggested, the epilogue was at least as enjoyable as the game itself.
Many lingered to hear Sean Óg's victory speech.
There had been no more conjecture about the match itself thaas to whether Sean Óg would speak using all three of the tongues spoken in his family home in Blarney.
In the event he stuck to the fluent Irish which is his passion, eschewing the Fijian he uses when speaking to his parents or siblings or the English with which he greets the rest of us.
If there is a better story than Seán Óg's in the history of the GAA we should be told.
From Fiji to Sydney to Cork to the steps of Croke Park, there to raise the cup and to give a victory speech in strong Irish is an astonishing journey, leaving aside the sub-plots of his talented siblings and academic attainments.
Having captained Cork to their second All-Ireland win in succession, Seán Óg spoke about coming to Ireland at 11 years of age.
His early memories are of train journeys in the rain and the perpetual gloominess of his new home. He took to the almost impossible challenge of hurling though. Life was forever altered
"I started off in Na Piarsaigh, and then going to school in the North Mon. In those places you're told that Croke Park, the steps of the Hogan Stand, that's where you want to be. I bought into that growing up on the northside of Cork. I wanted to live that dream.
"Today it came true for me. It's an honour not just for me but to be associated with these lads," Seán Óg said.
As he spoke, the lads to whom he referred were gathered in the Cork dressing room reflecting on a win which significantly raises their stock in the pantheon of great sides from the southern capital.
Cork came to Croke Park yesterday favoured by the pundits and the bookmakers, but always aware that Galway had produced one of the great performances of recent years when disposing of Kilkenny at the semi-final stage.
Yesterday's game unfolded, though, in accordance with the precepts modern hurling adheres to. The side with the most experience and the most controlled hurling won through. Cork took the lead early on and never surrendered it.