HE WAS ALWAYS known as Bonner at home.
To his friends, his family, and his clubmates in Lorrha-Dorrha, Bonner was his name. As he developed into a hurler for Tipperary who won three All-Irelands and two All-Stars, his legend grew. And then we all came to know him as Bonner.
Patrick Maher has spoken before about how he came to inherit that nickname. His grandfather blessed him with it in honour of former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, Packie Bonner who was still playing when Maher was young.
“I had light enough oul hair and I used to get a lot of slagging off my older uncles,” he told the Irish Independent in 2012. “The granddad said to stop calling me names and just call me ‘Bonner.’”
Like most legends though, the sands of time has altered the origin story. In Maher’s case, the familiarity with the common Tipperary name ‘Bonnar’ has contributed to some confusion. Former Tipperary and Lorrha-Dorrha player Ken Hogan thought the name was inspired by Premier great, Cormac Bonnar. And with good reason, too.
“He [Patrick Maher] had that forceful type of play that Cormac Bonnar had. The speed bravery and the impetus for goals and playing in around the full-forward line.
“He was always affectionately known as Bonner. No-one knew him as anything else.”
Lorrha-Dorrha is based in the north of Tipperary, brushing the borders of Galway and Offaly. Thurles is over an hour away. 10 minutes in one direction would bring you to Portumna, home of the famous Canning family. And if you head east for about 20 minutes, you’ll land in Birr, an Offaly club that captured four All-Ireland titles between 1995 and 2003. These are the places Lorrha people typically go to to do their shopping.
Hogan attended school in Birr while Maher went to Banagher Community College. The links with other counties are close, but what ties them to Tipperary is stronger.
“The nearer you are to the border…you’re more conscious of your identity,” Hogan explains.
Bonner’s star didn’t shine right from the start. He was small in stature to begin with. Brendan Maher, who Bonner would go on to achieve Liam MacCarthy glory with, was turning heads with fellow north Tipp side, Borrisoleigh. Bonner became a more notable talent in time, winning a minor B championship in 2006 against a Gortnahoe side that featured former Republic of Ireland striker, Shane Long, and a minor All-Ireland with Tipperary in 2007.
“He wasn’t a big chap. But the thing about Bonner was that he worked so hard at his game. He’s basically a non-drinker, just totally committed to what he’s about. His fitness levels were always of a high standard.
“He took that from his uncle Eamonn who played with us and captained and managed a Lorrha team. I would have played with him and he was a fanatical trainer, was way before his time in that his fitness levels were higher than anybody else.
“Patrick persisted with working on his game. His parents brought him to trainings and trials. He had great juvenile success with Lorrha, won an U16B [county title] when he was only 13 years of age.”
In 2007, as Hogan’s playing career was winding down, Bonner was making his breakthrough with the Lorrha-Dorrha seniors as a 17-year-old. Hogan points to Maher’s youthful influence in their march to promotion as they defeated Moycarkey-Borris in the final to mark their return to the senior grade for the first time in nine years.
Hogan and Maher teamed up again three years later. By that stage, Hogan was the Tipperary U21 manager while Maher was a key player who had already cemented a place at centre-forward on Liam Sheedy’s senior team. Within the space of a week, Maher was targeting senior and U21 All-Ireland success along with a delegation which included Pádraic and Brendan Maher, Mikey Cahill and Noel McGrath.
The senior decider came first on 5 September as Tipperary denied Kilkenny a historic five-in-a-row. Hogan met some of his U21 players from that successful senior team the day after that triumph in Croke Park. Instead of celebrating, they were heading for a recovery session in the pool, something he wasn’t surprised to see.
“It was typical of the guys of that era, the Mahers, Mikey Cahill and of course, Bonner, and the fact that they were all introduced to the senior system with Liam Sheedy.
“The one thing that Liam Sheedy instilled in them, and we would instill ourselves, is that we stay grounded and stay believing in what we’re about. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised in the lads going down to get their recovery on the Monday morning. Bonner was only tuned into one thing: to win an U21 All-Ireland. We hadn’t won one since 1995.
“The lads needed no motivation and that’s typical of what those four guys achieved on the hurling field. There was an extra incentive for Bonner because we were playing our neighbours Galway as well.”
The U21 final was played in Thurles, and Hogan’s outfit put on a clinic as they devoured Galway by 25 points. Anthony Cunningham was the Tribesmen manager, and the Galway team included future Liam MacCarthy winners like David Burke, Johnny Coen and Joseph Cooney.
But Tipperary crushed them with five goals, one of which was scored by Bonner. It’s a personal highlight for Hogan, although the margin of their win did surprise him.
“Of course we were shocked. It was in Thurles. There was a huge emphasis behind it, huge momentum and the game was played in front of 30,000 people. Nothing was going to stop us and to be fair to Anthony Cunningham and the Galway team, they regrouped and won the 2011 All-Ireland final.”
Bonner announced his inter-county retirement this week, marking the end of a distinguished career in the sport. It comes after some particularly challenging years for him as he battled back from two significant injuries to his ACL and Achilles tendon, the former issue keeping him off the field for his last All-Ireland triumph with Tipperary in 2019.
A video emerged in the wake of his retirement, showing Bonner on a gym within days of undergoing surgery for his torn cruciate. Goalkeeper Brian Hogan, son of Ken, previously said that Bonner would often be seen on a bike at the sideline while the rest of the team was training.
Evidence of his mental fortitude in the face of devastating setbacks is easy to find. And Ken Hogan wasn’t shocked to see Bonner exude that quality.
“We called him the bionic man because he was such a freak of nature. He took the hits and took the punishment to win the hard ball. Usually you associate that with hand fractures and dislocated shoulders but he never received them. It’s amazing that the injuries he received were of the nature of an ACL and the Achilles tendon which was a total accident. He was just jogging out for the warm-up which just goes to show how fragile the body can be.
“We would never have doubted Bonner’s capacity to bounce back. The Achilles tendon is a particularly grave injury. It takes a lot of painstaking time and patience to get back but we never doubted him. Training is his life, it’s what he’s about, it’s what he stands for. He was never going to bow under a situation that ‘this is me done.’ That’s not in his mantra. He resists everything like that and aspires to be as strong an athlete as he can possibly can.”
Ken Hogan
— The Premier 'View' (@PremierviewPod) October 7, 2024
“An un-assailable appetite for torture”
Days after suffering an ACL injury v Limerick in 2019
Bonner Maher was back in the Gym
Couldn’t use his Legs,so instead decided to drive the Assault bike using only his arms!!!
📹 David Fogarty pic.twitter.com/hNFX157Rof
16 years after helping Lorrha-Dorha clinch promotion, Bonner was back at the wheel helping the club back to the senior grade again in 2023. Again, Hogan was the chief, and again, Bonner scored a goal as Lorrha-Dorrha held off the challenge of Thurles Sarsfields by one point in the final.
“His most enjoyable couple of years have been his last few with Lorrha, winning the premier intermediate championship and we went up to senior with the big boys this year and stayed senior. That’s a big achievement for a rural club like us.”
Bonner’s departure from the Tipperary squad leaves Noel McGrath as the last link to that group who won senior and U21 All-Ireland titles in 2010. A selfless player who liked to run at opponents were the trademarks of his game. His All-Stars in 2014 and 2016 are testament to that. His last few seasons were quieter due to injuries, but he did manage a brilliant goal against Limerick in the league this year in what proved to be his final campaign with the county.
The hope is that he will continue to hurl at home for a while, where Bonner remains Bonner.
“He definitely left his mark,” says Hogan, “without a doubt. And made it all on his own. We’re an outlier club with development squads and minor teams, it’s very difficult because we’re over an hour from Thurles. So you would have to do training sessions and trials before you’d ever make a team in Tipp.
“He’s a big example to us about how to conduct yourself, how to train and how to play as a leader.”
