Edward Peter Keher (; born 14 October 1941) is an Irish former hurler who played as a half-forward for the Kilkenny county team from 1959 to 1977.
Born in Inistioge, County Kilkenny, Keher first played competitive hurling whilst at school in St. Kieran's College. Aged 15, he represented the county minor team before making his senior debut in the 1959 championship. At senior level Keher won six All-Ireland medals, ten Leinster medals and three National Hurling League medals. He captained the team to All-Ireland victory in 1969 and was an All-Ireland runner-up on four occasions. As a member of the Leinster inter-provincial team for sixteen years, Keher won nine Railway Cup medals, a record for a Leinster player. At club level he won one championship medal with Rower–Inistioge.
Keher was voted on to teams made up of the sport's greats, including at corner-forward on the Hurling Team of the Century in 1984 and the Hurling Team of the Millennium in 2000. He won four Cú Chulainn awards and five successive All-Star awards, as well as being named Texaco Hurler of the Year in 1972. In 1972, he met and tutored Muhammad Ali in hurling during the latter's visit to Dublin. Keher made 50 championship appearances, a Kilkenny record which stood until July 2004. His retirement came following the conclusion of the 1977 championship. Keher's career record of 35 goals and 336 points stood until 20 June 2010.
In retirement from playing, Keher became involved in team management and coaching. As joint-coach to the Kilkenny senior team, he helped guide it to the All-Ireland title in 1979.
Keher was born in Inistioge, County Kilkenny, a village he always wanted to return to in later life. His mother Noreen (née Browne) ran a newsagent's and general shop in the village square, while his father Stephen, from Donamon in County Roscommon, was a police sergeant stationed in nearby Ballyhale. He had an older sister, Eileen. While his father had played Gaelic football for Roscommon, there was no tradition of hurling in the family: as a very young boy Keher persuaded his mother to buy his first hurley after watching neighbouring boys playing out the back of their house. With other younger lads he played matches in the square between the "up streets" and "down streets" or between children from the village and the surrounding countryside, and learnt from older boys. Keher also played a little Gaelic football for a period and was a big fan of boxing through his father with whom he listened to radio broadcasts from America at all hours.
He attended the local national school in Inistioge. In 1952, 11-year-old Keher played for the school when it won the under-14 Roinn B championship. He added a second medal to his collection in 1955, when he was also named player of the match. Aged 12, Keher was sent as a boarder to St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny. After completing his Leaving Certificate, he 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 trained with a few other Dublin-based Kilkenny panel members before big matches. He was later transferred to Kilkenny before becoming manager of the AIB branch in Callan, County Kilkenny.
During his time at St. Kieran's the school came to the fore in underage hurling, twice winning the All-Ireland title and lifting the Leinster championship on three occasions. At that time his hero was Jim Langton of the 1947 All-Ireland team, with Sean Clohessy later earning his admiration.
In 1957, aged 15, he played in the college's 6–3 to 3–0 defeat of Patrician College, Ballyfin, in the provincial championship final, his first Leinster medal. On 28 April 1957, Keher scored three second-half goals and set up a fourth in a narrow 4–2 to 2–7 victory over St. Flannan's College, Ennis, in the All-Ireland decider to earn a first All-Ireland medal.
Keher added a second Leinster schools' medal in 1958 against Cistercian College, Roscrea.
In 1959 he was captain of the team and won a third Leinster medal after a walkover in the final. On 19 April 1959, a 2–13 to 4–2 victory over Abbey CBS, Tipperary, gave him a second All-Ireland medal.
Keher played his club hurling with Rower–Inistioge. 1968 was his first senior championship final, against three-in-a-row hopefuls Bennettsbridge. A narrow 3–9 to 3–7 success earned Keher a Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship medal. Keher regards this achievement as another career highlight, particularly since his club nominated him to be captain of the county team the following season. This "huge honour", as he called it, was made all the more special when he received the Liam MacCarthy Cup after Kilkenny's All-Ireland success the following September.
Keher was fifteen years old when called up to the Kilkenny minor team in 1956. He won a Leinster medal as an unused substitute that year, following a 4–7 to 3–7 defeat of Wexford.
In 1957 Keher added a second Leinster medal to his collection, as Offaly were defeated by 5–10 to 4–2. In the All-Ireland final against Tipperary, a replay of the previous year, Kilkenny lost again by 4–7 to 3–7.
Kilkenny retained their provincial crown in 1958, with Keher collecting a third Leinster medal following a 5–11 to 1–7 defeat of Laois.
1959 was his final year as a minor. A 7–9 to 3–4 defeat of Wexford gave Keher a fourth successive Leinster medal. For the third year in a row old rivals Tipperary provided the opposition in the All-Ireland final and prevailed narrowly by 2–8 to 2–7.
After impressing against Dublin in the Oireachtas Cup and Wexford in the Walsh Cup, Keher was picked for the senior panel in the All-Ireland final replay against Waterford on 4 October 1959. He came on after fifteen minutes for Johnny McGovern who was forced off with injury. Behind at half-time, Kilkenny scored only two points in the second half, from Keher, and lost 3–12 to 1–10.
In 1962 Keher captured his first silverware when Kilkenny defeated Cork to take their first National Hurling League in almost thirty years.
The following year Keher won his first Leinster medal following a 2–10 to 0–9 defeat of Dublin. In the All-Ireland final against Waterford on 1 September 1963, Keher scored no fewer than fourteen points and Kilkenny secured a 4–17 to 6–8 victory. This was his first All-Ireland medal, a win he considers "a magical moment to look back on". He later won his first Cú Chulainn award in the inaugural year of the scheme.