By Cian O'Connell

With a smile etched across his face Shane Dowling was able to find the words which captured Na Piarsaigh's pure joy.

Becoming the first Limerick team to secure an AIB All Ireland Club Hurling title merely added to Na Piarsaigh's feel-good factor.  “To be the first team makes it extra special,” Dowling admitted.

“For my own reasons I’ve always wanted to win this one, for various different reasons. I would like to consider myself a thorough clubman.

“Often when you play with the county you find yourself adrift from the club set-up, but I live beside the place. I grew up there, I’m going to finish there. I know numerous people there, I try to give as much as I can back.”

Dowling recalled the beauty of his youth when he'd travel to St Joseph's Doora/Barefield with the late Ger Hoey. “Mascot is quite a strong word, but I went to a load of training sessions with Ger. I still get on quite well with the family.

“I got to know Christy O’Connor and a few more because of it. He was very good to me, I’m only so delighted to pay him back, I hope he is looking down. All I can say is thanks for what he did for me when I was young.”

In his own unique way Dowling is passing on an appreciation of sport to the younger members of Na Piarsaigh, who left Croke Park heartened and with hope following the St Patrick's Day triumph over Ruairi Óg, Cushendall.

“Because it isn’t like a parish it can be quite difficult to get that community spirit, but over the last number of weeks everybody has rallied. To be able to pay everyone back for all the hard work that has been done is extra special.

“What I have to stress is the subs just had as much of a part to play, not just the subs. People back home have died this year, others who are getting old, people that founded the club. Without them we wouldn’t have been here.

“Sean Stack was with Na Piarsaigh for five years. Without Sean we wouldn’t be here. U12, U14, U16, and minor managers the whole way up they have as much got to do with this as we do."

Will Na Piarsaigh's success carry any relevance at inter-county level? “I hope it can, but I mean what difference will it make when you play in the first round of Championship hurling in Thurles,” Dowling replied. “If you are lucky enough to get to Croke Park it should be in the back of people’s minds that it is only another pitch really.”

Na Piarsaigh's remarkable journey concluded with the Tommy Moore Cup being lofted high in the Hogan Stand. Fortune favoured the brave according to Dowling. “The difference this year there is no point in saying otherwise we had a lot of luck.

Against Sixmilebridge we were nine points down, against Thurles it was nip and tuck the whole way Patrickswell county final one point, Kilmallock in the semi-final one point.

"You need luck, but when we got to the All Ireland semi-final as hard as Oulart pushed us the past experience showed. We always knew once we got to Croke Park that we had the players to express themselves. I think that did happen.”

Loughgiel Shamrock's 2012 AIB All Ireland Club Hurling semi-final success over Na Piarsaigh meant the Limerick outfit were primed for a battle. “The best thing that happened us was Loughgiel Shamrocks beating us four years ago,” Dowling acknowledged.

“That really tuned us in because if they didn’t beat us four years ago there might have been a small bit of complacency. They really taught us a lesson about club hurling up the north so we were taking nothing for granted.

"We just wanted to put in a really big performance.” Na Piarsaigh realised that ambition, producing a stylish display when it mattered most.

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