WHERE to start with Jimmy Smyth? He’s the type of man who’d fully warrant a fully fledged biography, but it was primarily his achievements with his club that saw him inducted into the John Morrison Hall of Fame at last Friday night’s All-Stars ceremony.

Smyth was an outstanding player back in the day with Lurgan club Clan na Gael, who won no fewer than nine Senior Championships in a 14-year period from 1968 to 1981 inclusive, and further proved their pedigree by winning three successive Ulster Club championships in the mid-seventies.

They were arguably the finest ever club team never to win an All-Ireland (they’re certainly in the conversation) and that they achieved all this during the height of the Troubles was all the more remarkable.

Jimmy’s list of achievements runs long: in 1967 he was a key figure on the St Colman’s, Newry team that brought the Hogan Cup to the border town for the first time. He also captained Armagh to their second-ever All-Ireland final appearance in 1977, where they lost to a Jimmy Keaveny-inspired Dublin, and he had a long and successful commentating career with the BBC.

We broadcast a video on the night with Jimmy Smyth and his former teammates Mickey O’Neill and Noel Hagan reflecting on their glory days, interspersed with footage from the time.

Commenting on the foundation of the Ulster Championship and the success that followed, Smyth said: “It followed on from the tournaments of those days, the top four was a great money spinner for clubs and the Clans were always in demand, the same names turned up all the time.

“The Ulster Council saw the crowds so it was a no-brainer to start up a proper Ulster Championship. We got to the final against Bellaghy in ’71 and they beat us easy and went on to win the All-Ireland.

“But that was the signal for us to really throw ourselves into it and we got to four finals in the next four years, won three and lost one.”

Hindsight is a great thing but Smyth does accept it’s a pity that they didn’t manage to make the breakthrough on the national stage.

“That would be a huge regret, it would’ve been something special for a small club like us that came out of the Shankill Estate next door, with about ten families and a lot of brothers. It was great to win three Ulsters in a row but it would’ve been nice to add the All-Ireland.”