** By John Harrington**

The passing of Tipperary legend Michael Maher on Wednesday at the age of 87 is the final chapter of a special piece of hurling lore.

Flanked by John Doyle and Kieran Carey, Maher was the colossus at the heart of the famous Tipperary full-back line that became known as ‘Hell’s Kitchen’.

They played together as a unit from 1962 to 1966 and in that period earned a well-deserved reputation for being one of the greatest full-back lines the game had ever seen.

As their nick-name ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ suggests, Maher, Doyle and Carey generated the sort of heat that withered most full-forward lines who struggled to cope with their unique blend of physicality, hurling skill, and defensive nous.

A member of the Holycross-Ballycahill club, Maher won five All-Ireland titles, eight National league medals, five Oireachtas Cup medals, four Railway Cup medals, and three Tipperary county senior hurling titles.

He remained heavily involved in the GAA after his playing days, serving as both Tipperary County Board and Munster Council Chairman.

Michael Maher was one of the real gentlemen of the GAA, and in 2011 I had the pleasure of speaking to him about his career when writing John Doyle’s biography.

Below is an extract from the book published that year where he and others reflect on the glory years of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’.

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Hell’s Kitchen remembered

****He’s 81 years old now, but when Michael Maher shakes your hand you can still get a sense of the power that once made him such a fearsome prospect for opposition full-forwards.

The collective term for the Tipperary full-back line from ’62 to ’66 – ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ – makes the mind race in such a way that meeting the man who was at the very heart of it is a disarming experience.

Maher is quiet-spoken and unfailingly courteous, so it’s hard to imagine him now as the defensive colossus who ruled the square in front of the Tipperary goal with utter ruthlessness.

He was that man though, and he doesn’t mind at all that history has painted himself and his two corner-backs as such a fearsome combination. Invoke the term ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ in Maher’s company, and he chuckles at the good of it.

“John D Hickey put that name on us, fair dues to him,” says Maher. “We never minded it at all either. There wasn’t much said about it when we were playing, it was afterwards that people really started describing us as Hell’s Kitchen.

“We were big and strong I suppose, and protecting the goalkeeper was number one. We had no system as such, but we’d cover for each other when we could and get to the ball first if at all possible.

“Kieran Carey wasn’t too spectacular in his hurling, but he was very strong. And Doyle was Doyle.

“At that time there was a big tendency to be too safe and play behind your man too much. But the place to be playing is to be out in front where you can get the ball and that’s the way we played it.”

John O’Donoghue tended goal for Tipperary behind the Doyle-Maher-Carey combination from 1964 until 1966 after which Maher retired and Hell’s Kitchen was no more.

For the three years that they stood in front of him as a three-some, he was glad of the protection they provided.

“Well they tell me I wouldn’t have been any good if it wasn’t for them,” says O’Donoghue with a laugh.

“It was certainly a great bonus for me though coming into the team as a 21-year-old to play behind a full-back like them.

“It wasn’t just that they provided great protection, they also trusted me enough to let the ball through to me and let me deal with it while they held back their men which was a huge confidence booster for me.

“As hurlers they were very much of their time. The rules of the day allowed defenders to be very physical and they were all extremely powerful men.

“Maher was coolest head of the three. No matter what was happening he kept his composure and that’s a great quality to have in a full-back.

“Carey was the toughest. He’d put his head where most men wouldn’t even dream of putting their hands.

“Doyle was comfortably the best hurler of the three. He was obviously strong and tough as well, but the skill he possessed is something that a lot of people seem to overlook.

“He was a fantastic hurler though and a brilliant reader of the game. And if he won the ball there was no-one going to stop him coming out with it because he was such a tremendously powerful athlete.

“They were all well aware too that they had the reputation they had and they played up to it, especially Doyle.

“At the start of a match when the corner-forward came in on him he’d say something like: ‘Do you see that line, little boy? If you know what’s good for you then you won’t dream of going in past it.’

There was nothing little or boyish about Wexford’s Ned Wheeler went he came up against Hell’s Kitchen in the 1962 All-Ireland Final. But even though he was 6’3’’ in height and tipping the scales at just under 15 stone, he still found it a punishing experience.

Wheeler was a midfielder by trade and new to the full-forward position, and when you’re up against the likes of Michael Maher and he’s flanked by John Doyle and Kieran Carey, the learning curve is a steep one.

“I found it the very same as putting a man into a pram,” says Wheeler with a grim chuckle.

“I was not built for it at all - I just didn’t have the natural game to be a full-forward. I had a few good games alright but in the ’62 All-Ireland Final I should have played much smarter.

“I should have roamed out the field that day but instead I sat on Mick Maher’s chest and in doing so played right into his hands. If I had moved out the field and dragged him with him I’d have left more space for ‘Hopper’ McGrath and Tim Flood inside and we might have won the game, but that’s all in the past now.

“John D Hickey called that full-back line Hell’s Kitchen, and in fairness to John D he was on the ball. The rules of that era allowed full-back lines to be ferociously tough and John Doyle, Michael Maher and Kieran Carey were certainly that.

“They’ve modified the rules since obviously so defenders can’t get away now with what they could get away with back then.

“Many of the great forwards of the current game would have found it a lot more difficult were they hurling back then because it was a much more physical game.

“The forwards of that era had to be very robust themselves to cope. Take Christy Ring for example. He was built like a tank and so was someone like Nicky Rackard. They were hard, brawny tough men, but they had to be to counteract the likes of John Doyle and the rest.”

Hell’s Kitchen were feared with good reason, but there’s no doubt either that the passing of time has embellished their reputation considerably too.

Tony Wall doesn’t believe that the popular image of Hell’s Kitchen as a line of defence that cynically scalped opposition forwards for sport is an accurate one.

Wall hurled in front of the Doyle-Maher-Carey combination at centre-back for the duration of its existence, and believes that why they might have been tough and ferociously strong, they were also fair.

“If you said that to an outsider they’d laugh at you, but I’ve been preaching that for years,” says Wall.

“When Doyle talked about Hell’s Kitchen that created an image of that Tipperary team that has since become engrained.

“By and large Doyle himself was a very clean hurler. He was a rough diamond but he played the ball. He took man and ball at times, and if you stood in his way he’d drive through you. He didn’t hit people though. There was no treacherous pulling.

“Maher was probably the toughest of them all. He was rock-solid in the middle and never moved off the square. Any forward really had to earn anything he got off him.

“Doyle would talk about Hell’s Kitchen as this great thing and that always fed the myth. They were rough and tough certainly, but they traded on their reputation.”

After his retirement, Doyle certainly wasn’t in the habit of downplaying the sort of heat that Hell’s Kitchen had generated, but felt for the most part they were merely meeting fire with fire.

“I'll put it this way, we got as much punishment as we were supposed to have handed out,” said Doyle once. “I can assure you of that.

"I'd have to say about myself I never hit a fella with a hurley in my life. If I had, that would have been the day I'd have had to give up. Oh, I hit them with my body alright. But with a hurley, no. And I stand over that."

"It was a lot more physical then. But nobody hurt anybody. And there was no big need for frees. Fellas didn't lie down for the sake of lying down. They didn't want to give you the saying that a fella knocked them down."

"I never cared about anybody, physically or otherwise, but I would beat them with my strength and my hurling ability."

That was usually enough.

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The following are the funeral arrangements for the late Michael Maher RIP.

Reposing in Hugh Ryans Funeral Home, Slievenamon Road, Thurles tomorrow Friday, 10th March, from 5pm to 7pm. Arriving at the Church of St. Joseph and St. Brigid, Bothar na Naomh, Thurles at 7.30pm, (close to Semple Stadium).

Requiem Mass on Saturday, 11th March, at 10am. Burial afterwards in Holycross Cemetery.

Family flowers only. Donations, if desired, to Alzheimer Society of Ireland.