Fifty years ago, Cootehill Celtic clubman Charlie Gallagher lifted the Anglo Celt Cup in Casement Park when Cavan secured a shock Ulster SFC final win over a Down side who were then reigning Ulster, All-Ireland and National League champions.
On the way home from west Belfast, Cavan fans were doubtless convinced that securing Ulster’s Holy Grail would continue to be an annual, plush, affair for their team. But how wrong they were.
It's amazing to think now that Cavan were actually on the cusp of a precipitous slide back as the '60s came to a close.
The gruesome prospect of an extended period removed from the winner’s enclosure became all too real in the years that followed ’69. We lost Ulster finals in 1976 (Derry), ’78 (Down) and 1983 (Donegal).
The aforementioned defeat to Donegal in ’83 was compounded by another Ulster final defeat in 1995 (Tyrone) before relief arrived with a capital R. Conquering Everest in 1997 – with victory over Derry - gave Cavan Football its first Ulster title in three decades and its first high since ’69. But the oxygen that the county needed to sustain their place at the summit of football in Ulster didn’t stick around. And neither did Ulster winning manager Martin McHugh who suddenly resigned later that summer for personal reasons.
Two years later, it seemed as if Cavan Football was hell bent on self-imploding with the decision of the Cavan senior squad to declare a vote of no confidence in then manager and former Down star Liam Austin. The crisis erupted shortly after Cavan lost heavily in the NFL to Fermanagh in what was noted as one of the county’s worst displays in years. At a subsequent press conference in early January 1999, Austin and his management team resigned; concluding a very sorry episode in the history of Cavan football.
Later that summer, Joe Brolly scored a 76th minute equaliser to draw (2-15 apiece) the quarter-final championship tie with Cavan. Derry hammered Cavan by 2-14 to 0-5 in the replay.
It was almost a case of déjà vu in the 2000 SFC replay between the sides as Cavan were throttled (2-13 to 1-5) by the Oak Leafers.
Within 12 months though, there was a significant turnaround and under the management of Dublin native Val Andrews, Cavan reached the 2001 Ulster final. However a 1-11 to 1-13 defeat to Tyrone only maintained the fall from grace narrative for a Cavan crew who had earlier compiled wins over Down and Monaghan.
Between 2001 and 2010, Cavan only managed victories against Down (2004), Antrim (2005 and ’08) and Fermanagh (2009) with draws against Down (2004), Antrim (2005) and Tyrone (2005) in the championship .
The fact is that out of 17 games in Ulster from 2002 to 2010, Cavan’s percentage success rate was just 35 per cent. In that period of time, only Antrim sported an inferior record than Cavan in Ulster.
In the first round of the 2003 USFC, Cavan lost to Antrim for the first time in 21 years, 2-9 to 1-10 in Casement Park.
Two years later, Cavan lost to eventual All-Ireland winners Tyrone in a replay (3-19 to 0-7) in what was one Cavan's heaviest provincial championship defeats in 46 years.
In 2006, the home defeat (0-14 to 1-9) to Waterford in the last round of the 2006 NFL was reckoned by most seasoned Cavan football followers to be a new low.
Incredibly, worse was to follow; the 2008 season unravelling to become one of Cavan senior footballers' most torrid of modern times as the county team suffered immediate relegation at the bottom of the second tier of the NFL.
In 2009 Cavan's senior footballers endured one of their harshest seasons in living memory when barely surviving relegation to Division 4 of the league. They survived at the expense of Limerick just by points difference.
A year later, the blues were again embarrassed when they exited the All-Ireland series on the back of a crushing 0-4 to 1-19 defeat to Cork in the second round of the Qualifiers With the ushering in of the Val Andrews/Terry Hyland think-tank in 2011, new blood began to filter through though and only 13 of Tommy Carr’s erstwhile 2010 championship squad of 32 remained on board for the 2011 season. Crucially, the inclusion of 10 of the Under 21 panel which reached the All-Ireland final in April 2011 – including such would-be 2019 luminaries as Gearoid McKiernan and Niall Murray – on the new senior panel signified a new investment of faith in Cavan’s rising young talent.
However, in 2011, Cavan ended their season badly when they lost out in the Qualifiers to Longford by 11 points on home ground.
The next year, Cavan were hammered (1-9 to 3-20), also at Kingspan Breffni, by Kildare in round two of the Qualifers. Seanie Johnston scored a point upon his introduction as a sub for the Lilywhites. Ouch and ouch again!
Cavan’s success in making it all the way to the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final (only to lose to Kerry) hinted at better times to come but in 2014, Cavan were defeated in the final of Division Three to Roscommon.
But something was bristling, one suspected, as promotion to the second tier was bagged and two years later, the blues secured promotion to Division One. Disappointment came with defeat though in the league final to Tyrone.
Thereafter, relegation in 2017 to Division 2 of the NFL was the upshot of inconsistent displays.
2018 delivered a modicum of redemption with promotion to Division 1 being bagged although losing the subsequent league final to bogey team Roscommon did take some of the shine from an otherwise decent innings.
And these days? Well, Cavan are back striving to raise some dust again.
It is Ulster final time. It can be the best of times. It can be the worst of times. But the power, passion, pride and pace shown by Cavan last time out against Armagh has electrified hope in the county once more.
Whisper it, but Cavan’s erstwhile inner confidence and self-assuredness seems to be back. The bluebloods of Ulster football believe they are now ready to recapture the county’s one-time lustre.
No matter what the bookies say, Cavan football folk will travel to St. Tighernach’s Park more in expectation than hope. They are convinced their favourites can bring down a JCB bucket on the county’s House of Pain.
Remembering how Madness sang about the House of Fun, long-suffering Cavan fans have begun clearing their throats.
They've had their fill of singing the Blues.
