Desmond Foley (12 September 1940 – 5 February 1995) was an Irish
Gaelic football
Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...
er and
hurler of the 1950s and 1960s. He was also a politician and represented
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian- ...
in
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland read ...
.
Sports
Desmond Foley was born into a farming family at
Kinsealy
Kinsealy (officially Kinsaley; ) is an outer suburb of Dublin in Fingal, Ireland. Kinsealy is on the northside of the city, about 7 km from the centre city, on the Malahide Road, in the former green belt between the suburbs of Balgriffin, ...
,
County Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
in 1940.
As a young man he showed particular skill at
Gaelic games
Gaelic games ( ga, Cluichí Gaelacha) are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the ...
, winning four Dublin County Senior
Hurling
Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...
Championships with the
St Vincents GAA club, having earlier captained the school team of
St Joseph's, Fairview
St Joseph's Fairview, sometimes St Joseph's C.B.S., and previously St Joseph's Secondary Christian Brothers' School, is a boys' secondary school in Fairview, Dublin, Ireland. The school was in the patronage of the Irish Christian Brothers and ...
which brought the All-Ireland Colleges football title to
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
for the first time. Foley captained the Dublin minor football team which won the All-Ireland Final in 1958. In 1962 he became the only player in history to play in two provincial
Railway Cup
The GAA Interprovincial Championship ( ga, An Corn Idir-Chúigeach) or Railway Cup (''Corn an Iarnróid'') is the name of two annual Gaelic football and hurling competitions held between the provinces of Ireland. The Connacht, Leinster, Munster ...
finals, in hurling and
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, on the same day, winning medals in both codes for
Leinster
Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...
. He won further Railway Cup medals again in 1964 and 1965.
Foley was a prominent member of the
Dublin county hurling team
The Dublin county hurling team represents Dublin in hurling and is governed by Dublin GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Hurling ...
from 1958 until 1969, playing on the losing side in the
1961 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final. In 1963 he captained the
Dublin county football team
The Dublin county football team represents Dublin in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Dublin GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Irela ...
which defeated
Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
to win the All-Ireland title. He won three All-Star awards, two for football and one for hurling, but never a senior All-Ireland hurling medal. He was a mid-fielder of the highest ranking, particularly noted for his outstanding sportsmanship. His brother
Lar Foley
Liam 'Lar' Foley (23 November 1938 – 4 March 2003) was a hurling and Gaelic football player from Dublin, Ireland, who played inter-county for Dublin and for the Dublin-based club St Vincents. He won two All-Ireland medals for Dublin in 1958 ...
was a team colleague, both in hurling and football, through most of his campaigns in the 1950s and 60s and who was also an All-Ireland medal winner for Gaelic football in 1958 and 1963.
Politics
Towards the end of his playing career, Foley became interested in politics and was elected to
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland read ...
as a
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian- ...
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...
(TD) for the
Dublin County constituency at the
1965 general election, and in the
Dublin County North
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...
constituency at the
1969 general election.
He resigned from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party on 4 November 1971, in advance of a confidence motion in
Jim Gibbons, whose role in the
Arms Crisis
The Arms Crisis was a political scandal in the Republic of Ireland in 1970 in which Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney were dismissed as cabinet ministers for alleged involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle arms to the Irish Republican Army in North ...
he disagreed with. He unsuccessfully contested the
1973 general election in Dublin County North as an
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
candidate.
[
Des Foley died in ]Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
in 1995.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foley, Desmond
1940 births
1995 deaths
All-Ireland-winning captains (football)
Dual players
Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers
Dublin inter-county hurlers
Fianna Fáil TDs
Irish sportsperson-politicians
Members of the 18th Dáil
Members of the 19th Dáil
Politicians from County Dublin
Politicians from Fingal
Sportspeople from Fingal
St Vincents (Dublin) Gaelic footballers
St Vincents (Dublin) hurlers
People educated at St. Joseph's CBS, Fairview