Stephen Bradley's history-chasing Hoops have one hand firmly on the SSE Airtricity Premier title.
The champions learned a sobering European lesson in Budapest on Thursday night at the hands of Ferencvaros but this Tallaght Stadium victory reaffirmed their status as the nation's best.
It's almost impossible to think of any scenario that will deny Shamrock Rovers a third consecutive league crown that will see them become the first club to achieve two such hat-tricks.
Seven points now separate Rovers and Dundalk with the leaders also enjoying a game in hand and a superior goal difference of nine to their closest rivals.
Dundalk will argue with some justification that they enjoyed as much possession as their hosts and that Alan Mannus needed to be at his best on more than one occasion to ensure his goal remained intact.
But Rovers exploited the visitors' lack of pace at the heart of their defence with a ruthless clinical edge that saw the home attack of Rory Gaffney, Richie Towell and Aaron Greene on fire.
Greene notched the opener in the 13th minute, Towell added the second in the 34th minute before Gaffney sealed the win in the 67th minute.
The success advances the case for the inclusion of all three as Rovers chase a double while also entering Europa Conference League group action next month.
Too often, Rovers have laboured to translate territorial superiority and lengthy spells of possession into football's most precious currency. This was not the case last night.
Following their 4-0 defeat to Ferencvaros, Bradley made two changes to his starting eleven with Ronan Finn - suspended in Budapest - and Richie Towell brought in for Sean Gannon and Sean Kavanagh.
The visitors - without the suspended Andy Boyle and injured Pat Hoban and Daniel Kelly - also saw two changes to the side that defeated Bohemians 1-0.
Robbie McCourt came in at centre half for Boyle while Robbie Benson slotted into an advanced midfield role in place of Joe Adams with John Martin named up front as the one striker.
Maybe it was their midweek exertions in the 36 degree heat of Central Europe but The Hoops looked somewhat lethargic in the opening 10 minutes even if Finn blazed a great opportunity over the bar after just 45 seconds when he latched on to Greene's superb pass.
Dundalk- without a game since the previous Friday week - pressed high, stifling Rovers' passing game and creating scoring chances.
Martin headed wide from Ryan O'Kane's cross and there was a real sense of purpose to The Lilywhites' play.
However, their failure to capitalise on possession deep inside their hosts' penalty area in the 13th minute was to lead to Rovers' opening goal.
Both Hoare and Grace failed to adequately clear their Iines but Cleary did so with the perfect pass up the left hand flank , releasing Gaffney who showed the covering McCourt a clean pair of heels as he spurted 60 yards into the Dundalk box.
Gaffney cleverly drew keeper Nathan Shepperd before squaring the ball across the goalmouth for the unmarked Greene to score with ease.
McCourt was booked for trying to bring Gaffney down and worse was to follow by the 26th minute when injury forced him off, Keith Ward introduced in a reshuffle that required Benson to switch to left full with Darragh Leahy moving to central defence.
The concession of the goal and the loss of Benson in the middle of the park clearly affected Dundalk as the tempo in their play dropped and Rovers asserted control.
Gaffney had a header saved while he just failed to connect with Greene's low cross in the 32nd minute.
Within 60 seconds The Hoops were two goals to the good but there was a degree of controversy just seconds beforehand at the other end of the pitch.
Martin and Cleary raced side by side to latch on to Sloggett's pass through the middle with Cleary falling to the ground before Martin slotted his low shot past the advancing Alan Mannus.
However, referee Rob Harvey adjudged that the Dundalk striker had impeded Cleary and awarded a free out.
Cleary's swift diagonal delivery picked out Greene on the left wing, exposing the sluggish Dundalk defence with Greene's low cross gleefully turned in by the unmarked Towell.
Towell's celebrations in front of the 500 visiting supporters earned him a booking although he will argue that their fruity taunts deserved his display.
To their credit, Dundalk finished off the opening half on the front foot and they continued to press in search of a goal on the restart.
But when Ward's 65th minute free - destined for the top corner - was tipped away by the excellent Mannus, their last hope of salvaging a point evaporated.
Within two minutes The Hoops once more exploited The Lilywhites' lack of pace and their high line as Lyons' perfect ball down the left flank picked out Greene whose low cross converted by Gaffney's right foot.
Benson did force Mannus to another stunning fingertip save eight minutes from time while Ward also tested the keeper but the destination of the three points and, in all probability, the title had long been decided..
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