ENA (Philomena) Foley, née Walsh, was born and reared in Passage East, the eldest of the four children, who were born to Joe and Mary Ellen Walsh. All her life, she spoke warmly of her early years in Co Waterford, growing up on the banks of the Suir, where her father worked as a merchant seaman during the war years and later as a river pilot while her mother was a tailor whom Ena remembered singing as she sewed. Although Ena rarely sang, on occasion she just might sing The Croppy Boyin acknowledgment of her Passage roots.
Although always creative and inventive, it was only in later years that she began to paint in earnest, beginning under the tutelage of her neighbour Colette Uí Chionnfhaolaidh in Baile na nGall. In time, she became an artist of some note in the Déise area. She was a member of the Youghal Art Group, and took part in a number of their group shows. She continued painting, until she became ill and the shake in her hand didn’t allow her to hold the brush any longer.
It’s likely that this creativity came from her grandfather, Joe Martell, a seaman from Corsica, who married and settled in Passage East.
After Ena married Joe Foley, of Ferrybank, Co Waterford, in 1958, they lived in the city in Lower Newtown until 1970 when they moved as a young couple with their family of three girls to Gaeltacht na Rinne. Here they opened a shop and quickly become integrated in local life. They worked side by side, rarely apart whether in the home, garden or shop. Ena loved gardening, cooking, knitting, walking, taking photographs and being with her family and friends.
She became a proficient speaker of Irish, who was proud of the words and phrases she learned from native speakers over the years. She was thrilled when she won the inaugural award of An Teanga Beo, from Údarás na Gaeltachta in 1988 for her initiatives to promote the language in their shop in Baile na nGall. One of her ideas was to translate the names of the sweets into Irish and hang the newly thought-up names over the shelves where children might see them so flogs became sceilpeanna, snowballs became liathróidí sneachta and black Jacks became Seánaí dubha. Last year the family celebrated 40 years in the village and Ena presided over a special get-together in the house where a Mass was said to celebrate the occasion with neighbours and friends.
Ena was an active member of the Gaeltacht’s Guild of Baintreach na Tuaithe (the Irish Countrywomen’s Association) for many years, taking part in musical and theatrical productions at local level, and going on with fellow branch members to win many national and regional awards.
She also won plaudits for her deliciously moist tea bracks, her multi-coloured jumpers that she designed and knitted and her shell-pictures.
She was dark-haired and beautiful, with sallow skin and a warm, glorious smile. When she met Joe first, she was working in Kelly’s on the Quay in Waterford, one of the city’s leading fashion stores for ladies. As they were married for 53 years and going steady for six or seven years before that, they shared a life for the best part of 60 years. They laughed a lot together, having the same sense of gentle humour and they showed great love, affection and kindness for one another all through their lives.
Ena died on July 5th and is survived by Joe, her three daughters, Catherine, Miriam and RoseAnn, her grandson, Joseph, and her son-in-law, George MacLeod. Ena also leaves a sister, Sheila Jays and her family in Perth, Australia and a sister-in-law, Bridie Walsh, of Cork and her family. Her brothers John and Joe predeceased her. She is buried in the Reilig Nua in Rinn Ó gCuanach in Co Waterford. Ar dheis Dé go raibh sí.