Dublin was in buoyant mood before the All-Ireland final of 1992. After Meath's shock defeat to Laois in the first round, they had cruised through the Leinster championship, beating Kildare by six points in the final.
Many in the county felt the team was overdue an All-Ireland, it being nine years since the twelve apostles held out against Galway in the 1983 final.
And while their brief hiccup against Clare suggested they weren't the best team Dublin ever sent to an All-Ireland final, they were still heavy favourites going into the final against the green young things of Donegal, participating in their first ever decider.
We all know what transpired in the final. A gamey, shrewd Donegal side caught Leinster champions on the hop in the final.
The following day, someone decreed that it was right that the conquerors of Clare in the All-Ireland semi-final should go on an open-top bus parade through the capital, so the citizens of Dublin could show their appreciation.
Paul Curran described the scene
I remember absolutely nobody turning up; we could have been on the 77A to Tallaght. It was surreal to be honest, there wasn't a sinner. I don't know who was involved or who said 'yeah', but it was a crazy decision really... But the reception at the Mansion House was fine; there were the usual die-hard Dublin supporters there to greet us.
Dessie Farrell was similarly mortified
The whole thing was a disaster. We went down O'Connell Street and, sure, there were people coming back from work and they were looking about as if to say: 'What are these crowd at?
John O'Leary later wrote about the embarrassment of it in his surprisingly controversial autobiography. Tommy Carr wisely refused to travel on the bus in protest.
Once they reached the reception at the Mansion House, there was more awkwardness when their iconic but laid-back manager Paddy Cullen, who shipped most of the blame for the team's supposed complacency going into the final, made a speech saying the match wasn't life or death. The cavalier nature of the speech rubbed a number of the Dublin players up the wrong way and a few left in protest.
Cullen was gone by the start of next year, being replaced by Pat O'Neill. Dublin would face two more years of Ulster inspired heartbreak before getting over the line in 1995.
