I should take my own advice
Shouldn't have gone from memory - you're right that MBH '98 is for the Northern Hemisphere. You're wrong in saying it doesn't show ANY cooling, though, take a look for yourself:
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/fig2-20.htm
Note the downward slope. It doesn't show a strikingly colder period but it does show it being consistently colder than pre-1400, and as for it being strikingly colder, my earlier comment about regional effects is, to use your words, "essentially correct."
