Background
Foley was born at Mudgee to schoolteacher James Foley and Margaret Mary, née English.
Councillor May Farmer mayor of Glebe
Foley was born at Mudgee to schoolteacher James Foley and Margaret Mary, née English.
He attended Mudgee High School before studying medicine at the University of Sydney, from which he graduated in 1926.
He practised first at Strathfield before moving to Glebe, where he worked for the rest of his career. He ran unsuccessfully for the state seat of Burwood in 1932 before winning election to Glebe Council in December 1934, serving as mayor in 1937 and 1938. He clashed with Language and in December 1937 led his own group, the "Foley Labor Party", which defeated Language"s forces at the municipal elections.
In 1938 he ran for the state seat of Glebe for the Industrial Labor Party, which opposed Language.
Foley was convicted in 1938 of misusing council vehicles. He was fined and disqualified from sitting on the council.
Language"s second splinter party, the Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) (after 1941 simply Language Labor), appealed to Foley"s anti-communist leanings and he ran federally for West Sydney in 1943 and 1949 and for the state seat of King in 1944, 1947 and 1950. He was elected to Sydney Municipal Council in 1945 for Phillip ward and Glebe Council in 1947.
When the two amalgamated, Foley"s Language Labor ticket defeated the official Labor group for the Glebe seats.
He resigned from the council in 1950 but served again 1953-1956. Foley rejoined the ALP in 1957 and soon gained control of the branch of Glebe North, analogous to the branch he had controlled in the 1930s. He was a councillor on Hornsby Shire Council from 1962 to 1965 and served for the Glebe ward on Leichhardt Municipal Council from 1968 to 1971.
Remembered as a socially conservative Catholic in a working-class community, Foley has a park named after him in Glebe.
He died at Croydon in 1989 and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery.
Foley was a member of the Australian Labor Party, and supported Premier Jack Language in the 1930s split.