The Long Journey Home begins in earnest early tomorrow morning when a chartered 747 commences the 12-hour journey direct to Dublin when the cortege will head for O'Connell Street and a state funeral.
There, those we left behind on the trek east will join those who made the longest journey ever. Once back in the city of hallowed halls and houses, we will celebrate the three greatest 1-1 wins in World Cup history against Cameroon, Germany and Spain. As we always do.
"Of course this Irish team deserves to be celebrated," insisted Sunderland striker Niall Quinn, now on his final journey as an international footballer after retiring in a Suwon dressing-room yesterday follwoing the Republic of Ireland's defeat, 3-2 on penalties, against Spain.
"For me, this was the best World Cup performance and achievement from an Irish team ever. People will say I am mad to suggest that because we qualified for the quarterfinals in 1990 but look at the facts. We had an old and settled team that ran out of time when it came to building on that success. We didn't qualify for Euro 92 and we lost to Holland in the last 16 in the USA in 1994.
"This team has so much ahead of it and so much to learn from their time here in Korea and Japan. They have been to hell and back over the last five weeks and yet we were within minutes of knocking Spain out of the World Cup finals.
"We played Germany off the park and we were the team on that pitch yesterday. We had Spain on their knees, begging for a penalty shootout. So celebrate this team, acknowledge what they have done and realise what they can do in the future.
"I firmly believe that this side will mature into a real force in European football and I am so looking forward to bringing my family along, wrapping the green flag around me and joining Mick's Army as a fan.
"That's what I told the players in the dressing room afterwards. They have to build on this now. They cannot let themselves get into a rut and throw away everything they have achieved here.
"They have a European Championships to look forward to now. Bad as the pain is now, the future is so bright for these players."
There has also been a slight change in the Irish mindset during these championships.
The Roy Keane debacle, when the captain of his country manoeuvred his way out of the World Cup before a ball was kicked in anger, galvanised this squad. It secured a bond with their manager that Keane and his cohorts will never break.
"There has been a change out here," admitted Quinn. "In the past, we were happy as a nation and probably as a team, just to qualify for major championships.
"We all came along and we had a ball. It happened in Germany in 1988 and then in Italy and the USA.
"From now on, it will be different. We achieved something when we knocked out Holland and finished second to Portugal in the qualifiers and we should be in the quarterfinals today.
"In the future, we will no longer be happy just to qualify. We will want to make our mark the next time we make a major finals."
No World Cup wake for the Irish can be complete without a final mention of Roy Keane.
His place as national hero has been commandeered by Robbie Keane, the man whose three goals in the tournament are already the stuff of lyric and legend.
Naturally, there are still those who suggest Ireland could have beaten Spain with Roy Keane on board. But the final words on the subject belong to one Gaizka Mendieta, of Lazio and Spain, the man whose penalty broke Irish hearts in Suwon yesterday.
Asked if Keane would have made a difference, he declared: "No player is more important than the team, no matter how good he is. The team is always the most important thing."
