In the immediate aftermath of Andrew Bree's silver medal success, Irish national coach Ger Doyle was emphatic in stating: "Irish swimming came out of the shadows today. The sport is back on the map here following a harrowing few years with the scandals and all of that".
Not since 1989 when Gary O'Toole won his silver Bonn has Swim Ireland experienced anything like it.
"For me a big highlight was the way the crowd lifted Andrew and he responded in fantastic manner," continued Doyle.
"To finish second to a new European record time was simply unbelievable."
Bree, a student at the University of Tennessee, came back from a serious foot injury earlier this year.
"The crowd were superb and Andrew acknowledged this to me shortly after the race," said Doyle.
Gold medallist Ian Edmond of Britain admitted the pressure was on him and he had to improve on his championship record achieved earlier in the heats.
All the Irish swimmers were unanimous in identifying the home crowd support as a major factor in the rewriting of more Irish records yesterday.
Steven Manley, Donal O'Neill and Muiris Ó Riada had a worthy team-mate in Bree when chopping six seconds off the men's 4x50 metres freestyle relay, in a time of 1.31.82.
Manley went 1.47.3 for a new Irish standard at 200 metres freestyle.
There was a flood of personal bests by the pumped-up Irish swimmers, among them Ó Riada, who went 24.83 in the men's 50 metres butterfly.
The Irish women's 4x50 metres medley relay team of Chantal Gibney, Julie Douglas, Emma Robinson and Lee Kelleher followed up their freestyle record by taking five seconds off the best Irish time.
And Manley kept the flow of new Irish times going with a brilliant 56.79 for the 100 metres individual medley.
Another highlight of the weekend's action was the 1,500 metres win by Russian Yuri Prilukov. He steamed away from Britain's early pacemaker Graeme Smith to set up yet another European record.
The Netherlands' 4x50 metres freestyle men's relay team garnished a remarkable final day by recording a world record, 1.25.55, in winning from Germany.
And there were further European records set by Dutch swimmer Pieter Hoogenband (1.41.59) for the men's 200 metres freestyle and Germany's Antje Buschschulte set yet another new European mark with 2.04.23 in the women's 200 metres backstroke final.
