Events in the Bulmers All-Ireland Cups and Shields signalled a major upsurge in the fortunes of Ulster clubs after some remarkably lean years. With Shandon Park completing a category-one double in the Senior Cup at Lahinch on Saturday, four of the five trophies had gone north; the only exception was Moate's triumph in the Junior Cup.
As Southern clubs basked in a string of successes, they probably didn't notice the difficulties of their Northern brethern. But the fact is that since making a clean sweep of all five trophies in 1987, the Ulster Branch had five totally blank years and four others when only one trophy was captured.
Significantly, 1987 was also the last year that an Ulster club had completed the double of the Senior Cup and Barton Shield, until Shandon's success last weekend. On that occasion, Warrenpoint also took the Jimmy Bruen Shield and the Pierce Purcell, while Downpatrick won the Junior Cup.
Since then, the category-one double has been completed four times - by Tramore in 1992, by Co Sligo in 1996 and 1997 and now by Shandon. Meanwhile, Ulster clubs drew a complete blank in 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and on the home terrain of Royal Portrush last year.
Saturday's Senior Cup win reflected even greater credit on Shandon for the fact that they were missing one of their best players. After helping the club to a Barton Shield victory on Thursday, former Walker Cup reserve, Neil Anderson, departed on a holiday to Hawaii, which had been planned some time ago, before he had a thought of being involved in the competition.
As it happened, Anderson and Michael Hoey became the key pairing in that success, beating Co Louth's Gareth Bohill and David Gannon by six holes. But Hoey went on to prove himself to be an equally capable singles competitor.
In the semi-finals, he came from three down to beat Ballybunion's John O'Driscoll on the 19th. And in the top match of the final against David Dunne of Elm Park, he recovered from a two-hole deficit after 12, to win the next four in birdie, birdie, par, birdie for a 2 and 1 victory.
It was Shandon's first time to win the double but they could look back on 12 previous Senior Cups, starting with three-in-a-row from 1960 to 1962. And the Hoey family made huge contributions to these successes: Michael's father Brian has seven medals while uncles Michael (5) and Dermot (2) have a further seven between them.
Elm Park had reason to be proud of their first appearance at this level. After beating a strongly fancied Co Sligo team in the semi-finals, they pushed Shandon all the way. In fact in the two matches which were called in, Declan Quilligan was level with Philip Purdy playing the last while Padraig Hogan, in the anchor position, was two up on Barry Hobson after 14.
The fourth Ulster success of the three-day inter-club festival was produced by Kilkeel in the final of the Bruen Shield on Saturday. As it happened, this was a breakthrough success at national level, as was the Pierce Purcell win by Roe Park the previous day. But it becomes a rather special prize for Kilkeel, who can hang the newly-acquired pennant in their £750,000 clubhouse, when it is officially opened next Friday.
Indicative of the quality of their overall play in the defeat of The Heath, was the performance of the top pair, Jim McKay and Michael Concannon, who were two under par when crushing Joseph Delaney and Patrick Keenan by 9 and 7. The match ended on the short 11th where, appropriately, Concannon hit a seven iron to 12 feet and his partner sank the putt for a birdie.
