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Eddie Keher

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Eddie Keher
Personal information
Irish name Éamonn Ó Cathaoir
Sport Hurling
Position Corner-forward
Nickname Eddie
Occupation Bank official
Club(s)
Years Club
1950s-1980s
 Inistioge
Club titles
Kilkenny titles 1
Inter-county(ies)
Years County Apps (scores)
1957-1959
1959-1977
 Kilkenny (minor)
Kilkenny (senior)
50 (36-307)
Inter-county titles
Leinster titles 10
All-Irelands 6
NHL 3
All Stars 4 Cú Chulainn
5 All-Stars

Edward Peter Keher (born 11 November, 1941 in Inistioge, County Kilkenny), better known as Eddie Keher, is a retired Irish hurling manager and former player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.[1]

Keher began hurling with the Rower-Inistioge club in his late teens. His performances with the club brought him to the attention of the Kilkenny minor selectors and he quickly joined the team in 1957. A three-year tenure as a minor saw Keher fail to land an All-Ireland, however, he quickly progressed onto the Kilkenny senior team in 1959. Over the next eighteen years Keher played in 50 championship games and established himself as the most prolific scorer the game had ever seen. He won six All-Ireland titles, ten Leinster titles and three National Hurling League titles before his retirement from inter-county duty in 1977. Keher also enjoyed an unsuccessful stint as coach of the Kilkenny senior team in the late 1980s.

Selected as the Texaco Hurler of the Year in 1972, Keher subsequently succeeded Christy Ring as the all-time top championship scorer. His tally of 36 goals and 307 points was a record which stood for over thirty years until it was surpassed by his fellow county man Henry Shefflin. His tally of 2 goals and 11 points in the All-Ireland final of 1972 was a record score for a final which stood until Nicky English surpassed it by a single point in 1989.

A winner of five consecutive All-Star awards between 1971 and 1975, Keher's reputation as one of the all-time greats of hurling was cemented in 1984 when he was named, by popular opinion, in the left corner-forward position on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century. He swapped positions to right corner-forward when he was also included on the GAA Hurling Team of the Millennium in 1999.

Biography

Keher was born in Inistioge, County Kilkenny in 1941. From an early age he showed exceptional talent at the game of hurling, developing his skills with his friends in the square in his local village. Keher first came to prominence as an eight-year-old playing in an under-14 hurling final. Even at that early stage a report of the match described his exceptional talent and his amazing ability at free-taking.

Keher later attended the famous St. Kieran's College, a virtual nursery for young hurling talent. At the age of fifteen he was instrumental on the college hurling team that captured the Leinster colleges' title and subsequently defeated St. Flannans College of Ennis in the 1957 All-Ireland senior colleges' final.[2] In the game itself Keher scored three goals in the second-half to clinch victory, before setting up a fourth goal for his team-mate on the forward line. He captured a second Leinster colleges' title in 1958, however, St. Kieran's were later trounced by St. Flannan's in the All-Ireland final.[3] The score line of 3-10 to 0-2 was a huge blow for the proud hurling college. 1959 saw Keher win a third Leinster colleges' medal in-a-row, this time as captain of the team. He later guided St. Kieran's to a second All-Ireland colleges’ success in three years, this time over the Abbey School, Tipperary Town CBS.[4]

Keher later went to Ross's College in Dublin where he studied to be a bank official. He subsequently worked in the Allied Irish Bank branches in St. Stephen's Green and Capel Street in Dublin. Keher later transferred to the bank's branch in Kilkenny before becoming manager of the AIB branch in Callan, County Kilkenny. [5]

Keher was a founder-member of the No Name Club along with Fr. Tom Murphy and Garda Éamonn Doyle. The organisation was established in 1978 and is devoted to providing alternative venues to public houses for young people and which now has about 30 branches across the country. Keher remains an active member of the No Name Club as the Club’s National Development Officer and is a member of the National Executive as National Treasurer.[6]

In 2006 Keher was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of Science at the University of Limerick.[7]

Hurling career

Club

Keher played his club hurling with his local Rower-Inistioge club in County Kilkenny. The club itself was not one of the most successful and had only joined the ranks of the senior county championship in the early 1960s. In 1968, however, the club came from nowhere to win the senior county title.[8] Naturally Keher played a key role in this success and he was rewarded by being appointed captain of the Kilkenny senior hurling team for 1969. He continued playing with the club until the late 1980s when he won a special junior hurling title.

Inter-county

Keher’s performances for St. Kieran’s College brought him to the attention of the Kilkenny minor hurling team selectors in the late 1950s. He quickly joined the team and won his first Leinstertitle in that grade at the expense of Offaly in 1957.[9] Keher subsequently lined out in his first All-Ireland minor final with Tipperary providing the opposition. A close and exciting game followed, however, at the full-time whistle Tipp were the winners by 4-7 to 3-7.[10]

Keher won a second Leinster title in 1958 following a victory over Laois,[11] however, there would be no subsequent All-Ireland appearance that year as Galway were the winners in the semi-final.

Keher captured a third consecutive Leinster title in 1959 after a huge 7-9 to 3-4 win over Wexford.[12] The subsequent All-Ireland final pitted KIlkenny against Tipperary for the second time in three years. Once again the game turned into a close one, however, Keher ended up on the losing side again as Tipp won by 2-8 to 2-7.[13]

File:Keher and Ali.jpg
Eddie Keher and Muhammed Ali in Dublin in 1972.

On the same day that Keher's minor side lost the All-Ireland minor final the Kilkenny drew with Waterford in the senior final and the replay was scheduled for exactly one month later. In those four weeks Keher made a seamless transition from minor to senior ranks. He impressed the selectors in some challenge games against Dublin and Wexford and was listed as a substitute for the replay of the senior All-Ireland final. After twenty minutes in that game Keher replaced Johnny McGovern to make his senior debut. The replay was another great game with both sides giving it their all. Waterford scored three goals in the opening thirty minutes which gave the Munster men enough of a barrier to secure a 3-12 to 1-10 win.[14]

Three years later in 1962 Keher captured his first major title with 'the Cats' when he won a National Hurling League medal.[15] It was Kilkenny’s first league title since 1933.

The following year Keher showed his scoring skill when he recorded 2-5 in the Leinster semi-final. He later won his first senior Leinster title following a comfortable victory over Dublin.[16] This victory allowed Kilkenny to advance directly into the All-Ireland final where, for the third successive occasion, their opponents turned out to be Waterford. This was the second All-Ireland final to be broadcast live on Telefís Éireann, allowing the whole nation to witness Keher’s outstanding scoring talents. In the game itself he scored a record 14 points, ten of which came from frees, giving the Kilkenny men a comfortable 4-17 to 6-8 victory over the Decies.[17] Keher had finally captured his first All-Ireland medal.

In 1964 Keher won a second Leinster title following another huge win over Dublin.[18] Staunch local rivals Tipperary later provided the opposition in the All-Ireland final, however, Kilkenny were the pundits’ favourites to retain the title. Jimmy Doyle had other ideas, however, as he scored 10 points and set up Seán McLoughlin for a goal. Tipperary’s fourteen-point winning margin, 5-13 to 2-8, was the biggest All-Ireland final win since Tipperary had overwhelmed Laois in the 1949 decider.[19] It was the second time that Keher had lost an All-Ireland final.

Kilkenny lost their provincial crown in 1965, however, Kilkenny bounced back in 1966 with Keher collecting a second National League medal and a third Leinster title.[20] This victory allowed Kilkenny to advance directly to the All-Ireland final where arch-rivals Cork provided the opposition. It was the first meeting of these two great sides since 1947 and ‘the Cats’ were installed as the firm favourites. In spite of this two goals by Colm Sheehan and a third from John O'Halloran gave Cork a merited 3-9 to 1-10 victory over a Keher-inspired Kilkenny.[21] It was his third All-Ireland loss in less than a decade.

The following year Kilkenny continued their provincial dominance with Keher picking up a fourth Leinster title[22] before lining out in a fifth All-Ireland final at Croke Park. Tipperary were Kilkenny’s opponents on the day, however, by this stage Tipp’s pool of players was ageing and the county’s hurling fortunes were in decline. Kilkenny proved more than a match for the Munster champions. Goals from Paddy Moran, Martin Brennan and Tom Walsh at vital times laid to rest a bogey that Tipperary had over Kilkenny since 1922.[23] Keher had collected a second All-Ireland winners' medal.

Wexford put an end to Kilkenny’s hopes of retaining the title in 1968, however, the Noresiders bounced back the following year with Keher, who was now captain of the side, collecting a fifth Leinster medal.[24] Cork faced Kilkenny in the subsequent All-Ireland final and revenge for 1966 was foremost in the minds of the Kilkenny team. For a while it looked as if the Leesiders would triumph over their great rivals once again, however, five points from Kilkenny in the last seven minutes gave Keher the honour of climbing the Hogan Stand steps to collect the famed Liam McCarthy Cup and a third All-Ireland winners' medal.[25]

While Keher had already appeared in six All-Ireland finals, ending up on the winning side on three occasions, the best was yet to come for the Kilkenny team in the 1970s. 1971 saw Keher capture a sixth provincial medal as Kilkenny began to assert their dominance over Wexford.[26] The Leinster champions later played Tipperary in the only eighty minute final between these great rivals. The game has gone down in All-Ireland final folklore for a number of reasons. As the first All-Ireland final to be broadcast by RTÉ in colour, the nation saw Keher score a remarkable 2 goals and 11 points and still end up on the losing side. Kilkenny’s ever-dependable goalkeeper, Ollie Walsh, had a nightmare of a game in which he conceded five goals, one of which passed through his legs, while that year’s Hurler of the Year, Michael 'Babs' Keating, played out the closing stages of the game in his bare feet. After a thrilling game Tipp emerged the victors on a score line of 5-17 to 5-14.[27]

In 1972 Keher won a seventh Leinster title following a victory over Wexford in a replay of the provincial final.[28] Once again, Cork provided the opposition in the All-Ireland final, a game which is often considered to be one of the classic games of the modern era. Half-way through the second-half Cork were on form and stretched their lead to eight points. Drastic action was required for Kilkenny and Keher was deployed closer to the Cork goal. One of the most abiding memories of that game is of Keher grabbing the sliothar out of the sky and racing up the wing in the shadow of the Hogan Stand. From that sideline position Keher pucked the sliothar as if going for a point, however, the sliothar dropped short, deceiving Cork goalkeeper Paddy Barry, and ending up in the back of the net. After scoring that goal an almost emotionless Keher simply turned around to go back to his normal playing position with blood pouring out of a cut over his eye. Keher finished the game with a tally of 2 goals and 9 points and collected his fourth All-Ireland medal.[29] After scoring a remarkable 20 goals and 134 points during the 1972 championship season, Keher was an automatic choice as the Texaco Hurler of the Year. His famous sideline goal from the All-Ireland final was chosen as one of RTÉ’s Top 20 GAA Moments in 2005.

In 1973 the Leinster Championship posed little difficulty for Kilkenny and Keher collected a seventh provincial medal,[30] however, his eighth All-Ireland final appearance was delayed due to injury. On that occasion Kilkenny were severely hampered by illness and injury and Limerick won the game by 1-21 to 1-14.[31]

Wexford were once again narrowly defeated by Kilkenny in the 1974 Leinster final, giving Keher a ninth provincial title.[32] In a repeat of the previous year Limerick provided the opposition, however, revenge was foremost in the minds of Kilkenny supporters. The Munster champions stormed to a five point lead in the first 11 minutes, however, a converted penalty by Keher, supplemented by two further Kilkenny goals gave Kilkenny a twelve-point win and gave Keher a fifth All-Ireland medal.[33]

In 1975 Kilkenny defeated Wexford for the fifth consecutive year in the provincial final, giving Keher a fifth Leinster medal in-a-row.[34] It was his tenth Leinster title overall. Keher later lined out in yet another All-Ireland final with surprise semi-final winners Galway providing the opposition on this occasion. The men from the West lead by three points at half-time, however, Keher’s huge tally of 2 goals and 7 points kept Galway at bay giving Kilkenny a 2-22 to 2-10 victory.[35] Keher had once again powered his team to an All-Ireland victory, his sixth overall.

Sadly, it was to be Keher’s last appearance in an All-Ireland final. In spite of winning a third National League title in 1976,[36] Wexford finally triumphed over their Leinster rivals in the provincial finals of 1976 and 1977, bringing the curtain down on Keher’s inter-county career.

Province

Keher was also a regular player with the Leinster hurling team in the Railway Cup inter-provincial competition. He first lined out with his province in 1961 as Munster provided the opposition in the final on St. Patricks Day. Spectators that day saw two of the all-time greats of the game battle against each other as Keher lined out in the forwards for Leinster and Christy Ring lined out in the forwards for Munster. As Ring was ending his long career Keher was just beginning his. It would be 1964, however, before the young Keher won his first Railway Cup title. Further honous would come Keher’s way in 1965, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1977.[37] His tally of nine winners' medals in this competition is a record for a Leinster player.

Post-playing career

In retirement from playing Keher continued working as a bank official, however, he also became involved in coaching. In 1979 he teamed up with Pat Henderson to take charge of the Kilkenny senior hurling team. It was a successful year for the duo as Kilkenny qualified for the provincial decider with Wexford providing the opposition. The game developed into a close affair; however, victory went to ‘the Cats’ by 2-21 to 2-17. This victory allowed Kilkenny to advance directly to the All-Ireland final. Galway provided the opposition on that occasion, however, the game turned out to be one of the least exciting finals of the decade. A goal by Noel Lane after forty-seven minutes gave Galway a two-point lead; however, Galway failed to score for the rest of the game. Kilkenny, on the other hand, scored two long-range goals to secure a 2-12 to 1-8 victory.[38] This victory gave Keher and Henderson All-Ireland victories as both players and as coaches. In 1987 Keher took charge of the Kilkenny team on his own for one season. It was an unsuccessful period as Kilkenny exited the provincial championship at an early stage.

After his playing days had ended Keher also came to be regarded as one of the greatest players of all-time. His huge scoring records, coupled with his deadly accuracy meant that he was an automatic choice for a special Hurling Team of the Century, picked in 1984 to mark the centenary year of the Gaelic Athletic Association. In 2000 he was picked on the GAA Hurling Team of the Millennium, thus cementing his reputation as one of the greatest players of all-time.

Honours

Kilkenny

See also

References

  1. ^ "Eddie Keher". www.hoganstand.com. 1991-08-07. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  2. ^ Donegan, Des (2005). The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games. DBA Publications. pp. 224–227.
  3. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games pp. 224-227
  4. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games pp. 224-227
  5. ^ "A hurling legend". Kilkenny People. 2008-08-27. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  6. ^ "Eddie Keher". University of Limerick. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  7. ^ "Eddie Keher". University of Limerick. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  8. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 318
  9. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 40
  10. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 29
  11. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 40
  12. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 40
  13. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 29
  14. ^ Corry, Eoghan (2005). The GAA Book of Lists. Hodder Headline Ireland. p. 354.
  15. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 68
  16. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  17. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 355
  18. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  19. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 356
  20. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  21. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 356
  22. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  23. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 356
  24. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  25. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 357
  26. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  27. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 357
  28. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  29. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 358
  30. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  31. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 358
  32. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  33. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 358
  34. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 27
  35. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 359
  36. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games p. 69
  37. ^ The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games pp. 88-90
  38. ^ The GAA Book of Lists p. 360
Sporting positions
Preceded by Kilkenny Senior Hurling Captain
1969 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Kilkenny Senior Hurling Manager
1987-1988 		Succeeded by
Achievements
Preceded by All-Ireland Senior Hurling
winning captain
1969 		Succeeded by
Awards
Preceded by Texaco Hurler of the Year
1972 		Succeeded by

Teams

Template:Persondata

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