As we near the end of a tumultuous footballing decade, yet another historical debt was settled. Galway have finally taken the All-Ireland title across the Shannon after 32 years of disappointment during which, at times, the prize looked as likely to cross the Zambezi.

But there were no mistakes this time, no under-achievement, no heavy hearts. It was a thoroughly deserved victory for them and manager John O'Mahony. Not alone are Galway Bank of Ireland All-Ireland champions, but they have done it playing the best football of the summer and yesterday, as they opened up in the second half, particularly, you could legitimately feel you were watching the most stylish winning performance since Down's victory in 1991.

So many of their players - but pre-eminently Ja Fallon - raised their game in the second half that the result looked as sure as such things can look for the whole of the final quarter after a blitzkrieg 1-4 without reply had turned the match upside down.

After an intelligent display at wing back, Ray Silke - whose propensity for oraid brea fada prophetically came to light after the club final victory of Galway champions Corofin - masterfully touched all bases in his victory speech as the western throng gathered to celebrate the deliverance of an entire province.

After all the hype and the pressure of being odds-on favourites for a final few thought they would reach only four months ago, Kildare and manager Mick O'Dwyer found themselves buffeted at every turn by a crop of injuries and a second-half Galway resurgence which proved irresistable.

Perhaps it was to Kildare's disadvantage that they were at their zenith at the half-time whistle. Three points ahead with their opponents' game-plan in disarray, Kildare could have been forgiven a degree of contentment at the break. But the match was to change dramatically and beyond their capacity to resist.

From the start injuries inhibited Kildare. Brian Lacey and Glen Ryan weren't fully fit and full back Ronan Quinn failed a fitness test. The re-arrangement of the team was surprising. John Finn moved to full back and Sos Dowling came into the side on the wing to mark Michael Donnellan.

Donnellan, whose penetrative running and magnetic close control were a constant threat to Kildare, had an inspired opening quarter before Dowling was switched. Playing into the wind Galway dominated. Their forwards were energetic and fast, closing down Kildare's characteristically elaborate short game out of defence.

At the back, Tomas Mannion in the left corner - the winners' most consistent player over the 70 minutes - was having a stormer on Martin Lynch, consistently beating him to the ball and managing to break the ball in aerial contests.

Gary Fahy was giving Karl O'Dwyer his least comfortable afternoon of the campaign and Tomas Meehan in the right corner hardly put a foot wrong.

Why this encouraging start came off the rails is something of a mystery, but there seemed to be a loss of confidence in the Galway ranks after Dermot Earley scored a goal in the 17th minute. Glen Ryan put in a long ball and Lynch read the flight better than Mannion.

Rising, he fisted back to the onrushing Willie McCreery whose clever pass put the ball over Martin McNamara's head for Earley to palm to the net. Kildare led by 1-1 to 0-3 and the game had turned.

What was most striking about Kildare's period of ascendancy was that they varied their style admirably. Their defence was now on top and worked the ball out slickly before letting direct passes straight into the attack.

More disastrously for Galway, they were forgetting the tactics which had underwritten their early superiority, hanging onto the ball for too long, wasting possession and not closing down Kildare's short game.

In the middle of all this, centre forward Jarlath Fallon was having a nightmare. All season, he has had a tendency to drift in and out of matches, but this time he wasn't just anonymous but was conspicuously at odds with his game - using the ball poorly and emphatically coming off the worse in the cockpit battle with Glen Ryan.

As is their wont Kildare did not exact the full toll from their spell on top and were it not for a late burst of points - two within a minute by O'Dwyer - their lead would have been ludicrously unrepresentative. On the whistle they led 1-5 to 0-5.

All Galway will admit to thinking at half-time that they realised they had to revert to the plan which suited them best. Once they had cranked it up on the restart, they must have wondered why they had taken so long given Kildare's lack of response.

Of prime importance in the turnaround was control of the 40s. Fallon started to run at Ryan and from his first point in the 38th minute he was on fire. Three points, including a beauty of a lineball, and his fingerprints on three others constituted the evidence of his revival.

At the back, Divilly - who had struggled to pin down the perceptive movement of Declan Kerrigan - began to take a grip and repeatedly drove excellent ball into opposition territory. He was facilitated by Galway's unexpected dominance at centrefield.

Kevin Walsh had a wonderful second half, repeatedly pulling down Martin McNamara's kickouts and Sean O Domhnaill yet again surpassed expectation, adding a massive point in the 54th minute - a companion piece to the one he kicked against Derry.

It was Divilly who started the goal move. Surviving Kerrigan's complaints of barging, he availed of the free in his favour and kicked long to Donnellan who laid it off beautifully to Joyce, whose shimmy left Christy Byrne floundering as the Kildare net bulged.

This was the turning point. Now Galway were completely in control. Kildare - like their opponents in the first half - seemed paralysed and unable to play their most effective game. Ponderous in their build-up, they played into the hands of an excellent Galway defence which conceded just two kickable frees in the second half.

A free from the now rampant Niall Finnegan in the left corner pushed Galway six ahead, 1-13 to 1-7, with 12 minutes to go. The only threat came in the late arrival of Brian Murphy whose goal settled the Leinster final.

His size caused Galway problems and in his 12 minutes on the pitch, he fisted a ball across the face of the goal, laid on a point and hit the woodwork in the last minute.

But there was no denying Galway and Sean de Paor capped a great afternoon by surging forward for his second point in injury-time and closing the book on all those years of want.