Career
A publican from Castleconnell, County Limerick, he unsuccessfully contested the 1965 general election and was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1969 general election as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for the Limerick East constituency. He was re-elected for the constituency until the 1981 general election when he did not stand for re-election. He was again unsuccessful in the November 1982 election.
In the first direct elections to the European Parliament in December 1979 he stood in the Munster constituency but was not elected.
He retired prematurely from the game following a serious head injury sustained in a club match in 1949. Michael Herbert died in 2006, aged 81.