Bench unveiled in memory of Tony & Mary Foley

By Annie Robinson

The sun was shining down on Ballea Road last Saturday, as friends and family of Tony and Mary Foley began to arrive for the official opening of the bench, which has been placed in the Butterfly Garden, by Tidy Towns. Relatives travelled from as far as Limerick, Kerry and London to be there, and there were friends, neighbours and volunteers from all parts of the community. 

We spoke about how Tony and Mary moved to Carrigaline in 1974, when Tony was offered a job in Pfizers in Ringaskiddy, and the couple moved to a new estate which had just been built, Glenwood. The couple quickly became very involved in the community, with Tony volunteering for St. Vincent De Paul, and later on giving a huge amount of time to the homeless hostel in Cork for men with addictions, and visiting prison. Mary always loved gardening and she soon became an active member of Tidy Towns, and was often seen planting or weeding at the roundabout near the church, or in Main Street.

A volunteer remembered "I told Mary that I wasn't any good at gardening but she encouraged me to come along and here I still am in Tidy Towns many years later". We also remembered the time that Mary and some Tidy Town volunteers were gardening at the roundabout near the church, and a van pulled up and a man asked them what they were doing. The van was delivering Chinese takeaway food and the man was so impressed at what the Tidy Town volunteers were doing, that he said he would be back soon with some Chinese food.

Unsure as to whether or not to believe him, the volunteer continued with their evening's work when sure enough, the van returned with some cartons of Chinese food for the team. An evening to remember!

Family and friends of the late Tony & Mary Foley

Barry Cogan talked about Beaver Lodge, and how this was the meeting place for many of the initial meetings around the twinning of Carrigaline with Guidel. One couple, who were considering moving to Carrigaline, stayed at Beaver Lodge and when they saw the amount of community activities that were happening in the town, they decided to move to Carrigaline. 

We remembered how underpinning so much of what Tony and Mary did was their faith. Ann talked about one evening when her father was worried about a huge cobweb that was hanging down in the church. Tony gathered a mop, a sweeping brush, a feather duster and a roll of masking tape. Driving to the church with the equipment and an extendible ladder, the taped the items together and soon the cobweb was soon sorted; Mary was relieved to have both her husband and her feather duster safely home. Mary of course loved Irish music and Irish dancing and went away quite a few times with the Carrigaline group. Tony also went away with Carrigaline groups but his great love was Lourdes and he went on quite a few trips to Lourdes over the years.

Even towards the end of his life, Tony continued to reach out to people and to build community. His family remembered when he was in Marymount and was coming to the end of his life, two male nurses came to help him to transfer from the bed to the wheelchair, as he was going downstairs to visit the café, one of his last visits to any café.

“Did you hear about the parsnip who died?”, Tony asked the nurses.

Unsure of how to respond, they replied that no they did not hear about the parsnip who died.

“There was a huge turnip at the funeral” - Tony, joking to the end.

We finished the bench ceremony with a group photo and then everyone headed to Carrigaline Court Hotel for coffee, a fitting way to end the morning.

The Foley children (Tim, Ann, Marie and Eithne) would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came along to the ceremony, to The Carrigdhoun newspaper for having a notice about the event, and to Tidy Towns for organising the bench.

Tony and Mary Foley - gone, but not forgotten