The other introduction to the Celtic team who beat the Accies that day, goalkeeper Jim Foley, is worthy of mention. The Cork-born stopper had stepped in for Joe Kennaway, to make his second appearance between the posts, following his debut against Airdrieonians two months earlier, Saturday 19 October 1935, at Celtic Park. McGrory’s double in the Hoops’ 4-0 win that autumn afternoon had seen him beat Steve Bloomer’s British goalscoring record of 352, whilst another name from the autograph list, John Connor, led the Broomfield club’s attack against his old side and fellow Garngad man, McGrory. More to follow on John Connor in the final part of this story.
Jim Foley had played for Belfast Celtic before winning the FAI Cup with his hometown team, Cork FC, on St Patrick’s Day, 1934, two days shy of his twentieth birthday. The opponents of the former Ford’s work team at Dalymount Park that day had been Dublin’s, St James’s Gate, the first winners of the cup some twelve years earlier and definitely now my favourite Irish side, given the brewery they represent.
Two months later, the red-haired goalkeeper, nicknamed ‘The Fox’, already capped twice for the Irish Free State team, against Belgium and the Netherlands, moved to Glasgow as the deputy for Kennaway.
Jim would make a further three appearances for the national side, in defeats by Hungary, Switzerland and Germany, the National Socialist German Workers Party (to give them their full title) swastika emblem displayed ominously in the latter’s flag, before taking his Hoops bow. He would claim a clean sheet against Airdrieonians and another in Lanarkshire, as goals from Celtic’s ‘Two Williams’, Buchan and the aforementioned Hughes, earned the Bhoys a 2-0 victory. Foley would then play against Rangers at Celtic Park on New Year’s Day 1936, the 4-3 defeat which would sadly prove to be Peter McGonagle’s final match for the club, the 2-0 victory over St Johnstone at the same venue, three days later, then the McGrory-inspired 5-0 home romp over Queen of the South the following Saturday, for an impressive record of four clean sheets from five games.
Whilst the youngster could be pleased with his introduction to the team, the return to fitness of Joe Kennaway saw the big Canadian regain the gloves for the visit to Albion Rovers on Saturday, 18 January 1936. He would remain between the posts as Celtic won its first championship title in a decade, with Jimmy McGrory netting an all-time club seasonal record of 50 League goals in the process.
With the continued excellence of Kennaway, Jim Foley would play just two more games in the Celtic first team, both 3-1 wins away from home in the last week of August 1936. A midweek victory over Third Lanark at Cathkin in the Glasgow Cup was followed by a trip to Cliftonhill three days later in the League, Albion Rovers providing the opposition for Foley’s last-ever top-flight Celtic appearance.
On the same day, 7,000 fans had turned up to see Mohammed Salim play for Celtic’s reserve side in a Scottish Alliance fixture at Parkhead. Curiosity would be the key here, as Salim did not wear football boots, preferring to turn out with his feet protected by bandages. In other news, which would interest Celtic Saddos of the day, William ‘Dixie’ Dean, Everton’s McGrory, equalled Steve Bloomer’s English League record of 352 goals, the old British mark passed by the Celtic legend fourteen months earlier.
The Scottish Alliance had served as an early 20th-century version of what we would know as a Reserve League these days. The ‘A’ teams from Scottish League clubs were supplemented by the first-choice elevens from a number of non-League sides, such as Ayrshire’s Galston, in the game referred to above. Celtic had taken part from 1919-22, winning in it in that final season, then again from 1930. It would be back to these fixtures for Jim Foley, following Joe Kennaway’s return from injury. This would have unexpected but severe consequences for the young Irishman.
Jim would gain his sixth international cap in the 5-2 victory at Dublin’s Dalymount Park over Germany on Saturday, 17 October 1936, as Hitler basked in the glory of his Berlin Olympic Games that summer, and the world looked on and wondered. The following month, he was part of the Celtic side which faced the Hearts ‘A’ side at Tynecastle in an Alliance fixture. Foley was subjected to a torrent of racist and sectarian abuse from ‘fans’ behind his goal at the Gorgie Road end. I’m sure you have the picture, the same stuff that James McLean gets today. At one point, he retrieved the ball from the track then, depending on what version you believe, volleyed the ball off a wall and/or into the crowd. Cue bedlam. In the ensuing melee, Foley was headbutted by a spectator, one of many who had invaded the pitch to attack the Celtic keeper.
What happened next borders on the farcical. A Hearts fan claimed that he had been ‘momentarily hurt by a glancing blow’, and Foley was charged with assault, ‘by kicking a football deliberately and with great force in his direction’.
Despite evidence to the contrary, including the word of teammates, John Doyle and Bertie Duffy, and requests from Foley’s King’s Counsel to dismiss the charge on the grounds of triviality, with ‘no question of injury having been inflicted’, Jim was convicted and fined £2, as an alternative to a 20-day custodial sentence. It was a strange interpretation of Scottish justice. Sadly, for whatever reason, he would not be the last red-haired Irish Celt to be assaulted in the Gorgie stadium.
By the time of his sentence, Jim Foley was a Plymouth Argyle player, having been sold within a month of the Tynecastle incident, on Hogmanay 1936. He would make 41 appearances in a two-year spell in Devon before returning to his native Cork in February 1938.
Foley would enjoy as much luck initially back home as he had in the Edinburgh court back in 1936, his old club Cork FC going into voluntary liquidation the very month he arrived, then the new entity created to replace it, Cork City, going the same way two years later. The sequence would continue, with yet another new club formed in 1940, calling themselves Cork United. This third side from the Rebel County would enjoy great success during the decade, winning five Irish titles and two FAI Cups, defeating Waterford United in 1941 and Bohemians just before Foley retired in 1947. The club would survive just one more season before going the way of its predecessors in October 1948. Sadly, Jim would not last much longer, becoming yet another to die before his time four years later. He was only 38 when he passed in October 1952.
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