Stories from the frontline with Christy Ring: 'There was a bit of a fight, but it wasn’t as bad as it was made out'

Over the years we’ve sent Michael Moynihan down the highways and byways to talk to hurlers and footballers, and Christy Ring’s name popped up more than once among his contemporaries

A colourised portrait of Christy Ring alongside the original

“The three best players I saw were Ring, Jimmy Doyle and Eddie Keher – the three best consistent hurlers, though it helped they were from three top counties. I’m inclined to put Ring first among them. I found him okay to mark but he was inclined to get wild at times on the field.” 

The speaker? The late Michael Maher, head chef in the feared Hell’s Kitchen backline that Tipperary fielded in the fifties and sixties.