Neil Farrugia scored his first goals in two years with a well-taken double helping to down hapless Finn Harps at Tallaght Stadium.
The result and performance was just the tonic Shamrock Rovers would have wanted ahead of their trip to face Gent in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.
A clean sweep of four wins over Harps this season sees Stephen Bradley's champions move four points clear at the top of the Premier Division table ahead of Derry City with a game in hand.
Following UCD’s win over Dundalk on Friday night, defeat leaves Harps bottom.
Though Harps, who’ve never won in Tallaght, had the first shot on goal from Filip Mihaljevic’s tame effort, Rovers dominated from the start and were ahead after eight minutes.
Sean Kavanagh and Aaron Greene both might have got efforts on target before Rovers carved Harps open all too easily.
Jack Byrne fed Andy Lyons whose drive was merely parried away by goalkeeper James McKeown. Farrugia nicked the loose ball off the toe of a sluggish Gary Boylan to confidently blast his shot off his weaker right foot to the roof of the net.
It marked the winger’s second goal for Rovers and his first over an injury-plagued two years.
Byrne was guilty of slicing off target as Harps were stretched again on 20 minutes, Dan Cleary’s superb diagonal ball to Lyons setting up the opportunity.
Ethan Boyle then eventually brought a galloping run into the box by the marauding Farrugia to an end with a fine tackle as Rovers maintained their onslaught.
The visitors had another let off from Rovers’ first corner of the game on the half hour, Lyons’ first time volley from Byrne’s delivery arrowing straight into the hands of McKeown.
Despite their supremacy, Rovers availed of a soft penalty to double their lead six minutes later. Ryan Rainey was harshly adjudged to have impeded Greene as they jumped for Rory Gaffney’s cross.
Gaffney scored empathically from 12 yards for his 11th goal of the season.
If livid at that dubious refereeing decision, Harps could have no complaints when Rovers extended their lead further in the 40th minute.
Farrugia and Gaffney combined well down the right to work the opening. Lyons applied the finish for his ninth strike of the year with a rising first time shot past McKeown.
The rout continued three minutes later, Byrne sliding a ball through for Farrugia to confidently find the net off his left foot.
To their credit, Harps didn’t lie down after the interval and got a fine goal back on 57 minutes. Eric McWoods provided the assist for substitute Jaime Siaj to crash a powerful shot past Alan Mannus.
Minutes later the Jordanian rattled Rovers’ crossbar with a spectacular scissor kick.
It provided a short-lived respite for the Donegal side, though, as Rovers regained their four-goal advantage on 62 minutes.
Substitute Aidomo Emakhu’s close range shot from Gaffney’s cross was parried by McKeown to give Byrne a simple finish.
Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus; Sean Gannon, Dan Cleary, Lee Grace; Gary O'Neill (Gideon Tetteh 64), Sean Kavanagh; Neil Farrugia (Simon Power 64), Jack Byrne, Andy Lyons (Viktor Serdeniuk 64); Aaron Greene (Aidomo Emakhu h-t), Rory Gaffney (Graham Burke 64).
Finn Harps: James McKeown; Ethan Boyle, Rob Slevin (Jose Carrillo 85), Gary Boylan (Harry Nicolson 72); Ryan Connolly, Elie M’Zeyi; Ryan Rainey, Dylan Duncan (Jaime Siaj h-t), Barry McNamee (Rob Janes 64); Filip Mihaljevic, Eric McWoods (Adam McCaffrey 85).
Referee: Derek Tomney (Dublin).
Attendance: 2,859
