Dublin city centre streets became awash with green, white and orange within minutes of Robbie Keane scoring in injury time.
Fans spilled out of pubs in their droves to sing and dance for joy. The sounds of Olé, Olé, Olé were everywhere.
In Temple Bar, a drunk appeared confused about the reason for it all. "Up the bleedin' Dubs. The Dubs for the Sam Maguire," he shouted, his hand punching the air.
The Fields of Athenry was blaring out of The Auld Dubliner, where there had been standing room only during the game. Inside, three young women from Crumlin in Co Antrim - Una Connolly, Áine O'Donnell and Jennifer Alexander - were jubilant. They had taken the 8 a.m. train from Belfast to Dublin to soak up the atmosphere. "The atmosphere is absolutely electric," they agreed.
"We knew they would come back in the end. They never let us down. You'll never beat the Irish," said Jennifer.
Beside her, George Downer from Ballybrack in Dublin was sporting a jersey signed by members of the Irish squad in Iran at Ireland's away game last November. Underneath, he wore a tee-shirt embossed with a scan of the baby his fiancée Sue is expecting today. He prayed she wouldn't go into labour during the match and she didn't. "But if she did, Holles Street was only around the corner," he said.
"The atmosphere is unbelievable. Even the foreigners are bleedin' Irish," he added.
Newly elected TD, Donie Cassidy, came to the door of the pub and peered in. "It's just unbelievable how happy the people are ... it's extraordinary what one goal can do for the whole nation," he said.
Across the street in The Quays bar, 13 lads who had travelled down from Bangor to watch the game in Dublin were belting out The Boys in Green. One of them, Robert McAlister, believed Germany's only score was "a silly goal ... it was a defensive error that should never have happened". He felt confident all along the Irish would score, but in the end was petrified they wouldn't.
In Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, Aussie Joe Dunne was on a reverse-charge call to his father, an Irishman who emigrated to Australia. They discussed the game and Keane's goal. "This is magic, I love this town," he said.
Dave Kennedy from Tallaght watched the game in the Vicar Street entertainment venue. "The place erupted when Keane scored. I got hit with a sandwich".
After the game, nine Cabra men clad in leprechaun outfits left The Left Bank pub to join in the carnival atmosphere on the streets of Temple Bar. They included taxi-drivers and builders who had taken the day off. "It feels like a bank holiday," the leader of the pack, Gary O'Brien, said.
That the Irish squad scored was a miracle, he believed ... "a leprechaun's miracle".