Managers' quotes: "Sayonara" seems wholly inadequate on a Lansdowne night like this, something more effusive than a mere "goodbye" is required, something along the lines of "farewell, ye green-bedecked men, may Cameroon, Germany and Saudi Arabia rue the day they ever met you".
Not easily translated in to Japanese, though, and this "useful phrases" book doesn't make it any easier. The closest you can get is gomen nasai, aitemasen, demo watashi no hiza no ue wa aitemasu, which, apparently, means "sorry, this seat is taken, but my lap isn't". Ah here, "sayonara" lads.
Hard to credit this journey began 18 months ago, on that Saturday night in Amsterdam in the opening match of the qualifying group. Some of us, of course, knew it would reach this glorious point and the only reason we're not prepared to submit ourselves to a lie detector test is because it would be an infringement of our civil liberties. No other reason.
But, while our heads still shake with incredulity at the notion of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Patrick Kluivert and Jaap Stam idling away their Junes in the same manner as the rest of us mere non-footballing mortals - by watching the World Cup on telly - it's party time at Lansdowne, of the going-away variety.
True, Nigeria came, saw and pooped the party, leaving most of the 42,000 crowd wondering: "If Cameroon are better (as they are, African champions after all), God help us all". Never mind.
"Delighted with the performance," said Mick McCarthy, "but I hate losing. We look for the positives, though, and there were more positives than negatives tonight. We could have had five or six goals in the second half, although Nigeria probably could have had a couple more too.
"I thought Stephen Reid and Clinton Morrison did very well when they came on. Great for Stephen that he got the goal, he probably thought maybe he shouldn't be here, but he proved that he should.
"It was a wonderful send-off from the crowd, I'm just sorry we didn't win to give the fans something to shout about, but they couldn't have been any better."
If a straw poll had been conducted amongst those very same fans they might well have overwhelmingly opted to skip the 90 minutes of football and just got on with their "Ole Oles" and accompanying Paddy Reilly on that song of those fields in Athenry.
Most might well have spent the bulk of the game averting their eyes for fear of witnessing Dr Keane challenging for a 10-90 ball. This was not a night for bone-crunching, gut-busting tackles, when a single mistimed one could leave a player watching the World Cup on telly with you, me and the Dutch.
Fortunately Nigeria, drawn in a doddle of a World Cup group with England, Argentina and Sweden, seemed a bit keen on retaining their fitness and good health for the challenges ahead, as did every Irish player who put in an appearance. Crunching tackles were notable by their absence.
Yes, in an emergency there are other Irish players on stand-by, but the chances are they are stand-ing by in a bar in Lanzarote by now.
Speaking of summer holidays. Reid should be in Barbados by now. He was on his way to the airport on Wednesday when he checked his mobile phone for messages. "Hello Steven lad, fancy coming to the World Cup," was the gist of the greeting from McCarthy.
Sympathy from all for the injured Mark Kennedy, of course. Well, all, perhaps, except Reid's beloved who must rue the day the FAI discovered that Ballinasloe was the birthplace of his maternal grandmother.
Last time the Republic made it to the World Cup finals, in 1994, Reid was 13, just a year in to his Millwall apprenticeship. And here he is now, soaking in the good wishes of the Lansdowne crowd on the farewell lap of honour, dreaming of "even a minute" on the most splendid of all football stages. Aah, any wonder we love this game?
On ye go, to Niigata, Ibaraki, Yokohama and, if the gods ordain (and if Roy Keane's hamstring holds out), beyond. As the song says, "we won't win the World Cup . . . aaah, you never know".
