Obituary: National boxing champion and winner of An Tóstal Shield

Christy Foley

The funeral took place in Dunshaughlin on Monday of Christy Foley, ‘Beech Grove’, Grange End, Dunshaughlin, patriarch of the Foley's Forge family, and a former national boxing champion.

He died peacefully at Sancta Maria Nursing Home, Kinnegad, on Thursday of last week, aged 95.

The Foley family have been blacksmiths and farriers in the area for centuries, originating in Kilmessan before William Foley, Christy's great grandfather, established in Dunshaughlin in 1845.

Eldest son of Patrick 'Gah' Foley and his first wife, Maggie, Christy was taken out of school early to work with his father at the forge. His father's main line of business was as a farrier, shoeing horses for the Dunsany and Killeen Castle estates, Corbalton Hall, and Tara Stud, with Christy blowing the bellows trying to get a fire going to heat the shoes.

Christy wanted to expand the business and went by bus to Bolton Street Technical School in Dublin to learn wrought ironwork, helping his father by working at night.

He then served his time with Joe Breen, a master craftsman, in Leixlip, cycling there every morning to open the forge.

After nine months there, he won a scholarship to Ardee Technical School for blacksmithing and wrought iron work. In 1951, he won the Championship of Ireland when he took the An Tostal Shield for wrought ironwork, beating off competition from the major ironwork companies, with his wrought iron firescreen.

This was the turning point for Foley's Forge, as Brown Thomas in Dublin commissioned Foleys to produce pieces for their Grafton Street store.

The main work in the early days was wrought iron gates, railings, outdoor and indoor furniture for private commissions and stud farms, later expanding to restoration work, chandeliers, balconies, grilles, and lamp fittings. A major project in recent years was new gates for Killeen Castle Golf Club – where Christy's father had once shod horses.

In the 1940s and '50s, Christy Foley and his four brothers were members of Dunshaughlin Boxing Club, a prominent club in a popular sport at the time, and were christened by the Irish Independent as‘the Fighting Foleys'.

The Independent wrote: “It was said that while their father had it in his feet – he was an All Ireland dancing champion – the lads had it in their fists!”

In March 1950, Christy became the first Meath man to win a national boxing championship. In a surprise victory, the 22-year-old beat Pat Buckley of Cork to become Irish Senior Lightweight Champion. Buckley had defeated European champion, Maxie McCullagh, in the first round of the lightweight campaign. The newspapers of the time called the lightweight final at Dublin’s National Boxing Stadium a terrific slugging match which was packed with excitement from start to finish, and which had the stadium in uproar.

“Buckley met a man who could not only stand up and slog it out with him, but was also cleverer,” one report stated.

“Foley is a strong and courageous battler who has been boxing since he was 15 and has won 47 of his 57 contests,” declared another.

Christy Foley began his amateur boxing career with the Hurst brothers who trained in the old workhouse, and his first appearance on a roll of honour was in 1946, when he won the County Dublin featherweight league.

As a corporal in the FCA, he was entitled to fight for the Army, and captured the Eastern Command Featherweight tithe the following year. In 1948, he was runner-up in the Irish Junior Championship, and in the same year he became junior featherwight champion of the Army’s Eastern Command. He also took a number of Meath titles. He represented Ireland internationally on a number of occasions, and was on Irish teams that travelled to Germany, England, and Italy, to take part in competition. One of the highlights of his career was meeting Pope Pius XII in Rome. His brother Joe, a SMA missionary priest now living in Cork, also represented the country internationally.

Chairman of the Meath County Boxing Board for some years, he retired from boxing around the time of his marriage to his late wife, Mary O’Flaherty, in 1954. A native of Castlegregory, Co Kerry, Christy had met Mary in Maynooth through ballroom dancing.

He was also chairman of the Dunshaughlin Carnival Committee for a number of years, instrumental in helping to finance the local GAA club and its playing field. He enjoyed golfing and was a member of Royal Tara Golf Club. He remained active in the family business as managing director as long as his health allowed.

Husband of the late Mary, who died in 1975, father of the late Evelyn and brother of the late Podger and Benny, Christy is survived by his daughter Avril, sons Paul, Mark and Allen, son-in-law Steve, daughters-in-law Siobhán, Karen and Eileen, grandchildren Rebecca, Ava, Ryan, Abbie, Ella and Scott, brothers Fr Joe and Seamus, sisters Mag O'Dwyer and Mary Englishby, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, extended family and many friends.

Monday's funeral Mass in Ss Patrick and Seachnall’s Church, Dunshaughlin, was followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery.