A gold medal was finally draped around an Irish neck in Greece last night as Cian O'Connor was crowned Olympic showjumping champion.
Last night's victory was Ireland's ninth gold medal since independence. It was the country's first Olympic equestrian medal, putting an end in the most emphatic way possible to Team Ireland's medal drought in Athens.
Tributes to O'Connor were led by the President, Mrs McAleese, who said the whole country could take pride in his "tremendous achievement".
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who watched O'Connor's final clear round on TV at his home in Drumcondra, said he had shown "enormous courage".
A delighted O'Connor was bombarded with congratulatory messages. "I've got 78 text messages on my phone and I haven't had a chance to answer any of them," he said.
"It's just unbelievable. I'm never one to be stuck for words, but this time I just don't know what to say."
The 24-year-old, who hit the international circuit just five years ago, did manage to string a few more words together, and quite lucid ones at that.
"I never expected this, but it's a huge boost for the sport and it's great for the country as a whole because it's the first medal of the Games."
One fence down in the first round of yesterday's individual final had left O'Connor in a six-way share of fourth, but Irish hopes seemed to lie mainly with Jessica Kurten, tied for first with Briton's Nick Skelton. But, while O'Connor's star was in the ascendant, Kurten and Skelton both crashed out of the picture and O'Connor's clear round clinched the gold that had eluded the rest of his Irish compatriots throughout the Games.
"The horse was always bought to go to the Olympics," O'Connor said last night. "He's owned by Independent News and Media and Waterford Crystal and we recently talked about selling him and getting a younger horse. What I'd like to do is to keep him and get a younger one."
O'Connor's girlfriend, Hazel O'Callaghan, died in a freak accident in July 2002 when she fell off the ramp of a horse lorry. But O'Connor has put his life back together and his new girlfriend, Rachel Wyse, was with him for the biggest moment of his career.
"I just burst into tears," she said last night, grateful that a minor car crash on Wednesday, when she was driving O'Connor to the equestrian centre, didn't have any serious repercussions.
The world of showjumping is a tough one and although O'Connor's team-mates were thrilled that he had landed gold, they had to bear their own disappointments in private. Jessica Kurten's five fences down dropped her right out of the frame to 20th place, while Kevin Babington, who had looked the strongest chance of a medal after ending Tuesday's two-rounder in fifth, slid to eighth."At least the medal went to a Paddy," a disappointed Babington said.
Meanwhile the celebrations were just starting in Athens last night.
"I always said equestrian was the dark horse for a medal at these Games," Olympic Council of Ireland president Mr Pat Hickey said at the Markopoulo stadium, where he and Irish Sports Council chief executive John Treacy were joining in the celebrations