She swept the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the Critics Choice, and the Actor Awards. And last night, at the 98th Academy Awards, Jessie Buckley completed the clean sweep — becoming the first Irish woman in Oscar history to win Best Actress.

In the 98-year history of the Oscars, Saoirse Ronan and Ruth Negga had been the only Irish women ever nominated for Best Actress. Buckley is now the first to win. It’s a milestone that felt both inevitable and electric when her name was finally called at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night.

Buckley earned frontrunner status from the moment HAMNET debuted at Telluride last fall, with her portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare — encompassing not just one but two grueling birth scenes, the gut-punch mourning over the death of her son, and a final 20-minute sequence at the Globe theatre as Agnes comes to terms with her loss, her loves, her life.

The Hollywood Reporter, reviewing the film out of Telluride, wrote that Buckley “really stuns” as she takes Agnes from “free-spirited girl” to “loving wife and mother” to “brittle and grieving woman,” grounding a character who might have seemed too ethereal in raw, naked feeling.

Director Chloé Zhao had long known Buckley was right for the role. “I knew her work. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be afraid. There was no vanity in her,” Zhao told IndieWire. “Vanity is the number-one enemy of authenticity. Actors’ greatest blessing they can give to the world is their authenticity and their humanness.”