Background
Foley was born at Tralee, company
Foley was born at Tralee, company
Kerry, in 1815. He was in time ordained, and took the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and obtained the prebend of Kilbragh, in the cathedral of Cashel, and the rectory of Templetuohy. Irish was his native tongue, and in 1849 he was appointed professor of that language in the university of Dublin, and held the office till 1861. While holding this office he wrote a preface to a small Irish grammar by Mr.
C.H.H. Wright, and An English-Irish Dictionary, intended for the use of Students of the Irish Language (Dublin 1855).
This work was based on a dictionary prepared early in the nineteenth century by Thaddeus Connellan, but published without a date, long kept in sheets, and issued in Dublin from time to time with a variety of false title-pages. Foley altered some of the Irish interpretations, and added a good many words.
Many of the Irish words are inventions of his own, as "fuam-ainm" (sound-name) for onomato-poeia. Or paraphrases, as "duine" (person) for microcosm, "eudaigh" (clothes) for caparison.
Or errors due to defective education, as "ainis" (anise) for caraway.
The University of Dublin made a grant towards the publication, but as a dictionary it is of no authority. He died at Blackrock, near Dublin, 7 July 1874, and was buried in the cemetery of Kill o" the Grange.