Dennis Foley Claims he is a Wiradjuri Aboriginal Man - Really? - Part 3 — Dark Emu Exposed

In a previous post, we researched Professor Dennis Foley’s family tree on his mother’s side to show how it appeared that all his mother’s ancestors originally came from Ireland or England. There was no documentary evidence that any of Dennis Foley’s ancestors on his mother’s side were Gai-mariagal Aboriginal people. To our knowledge, Dennis Foley has not produced any convincing, documentary evidence to support the claim that any of his ancestors on his mother's side are of Gai-mariagal Aboriginal descent.

In this post we will explore in detail Professor Dennis Foley’s claim that his father was a Wiradjuri Aboriginal man, which therefore enables Dennis Foley himself to claim he is also of Wiradjuri ancestry.

’Intermarriage occurred during this period as pastoralists, convicts and settlers took Aboriginal wives and raised Aboriginal children, which furthered the complex nature of frontier relationships. "They [Irish convicts] were being treated by the British as badly as we [the Wiradjuri] were, so there was a commonality there," Professor Foley said.

"You can see those links; the Irish boys obviously picked up and married the Aboriginal women and that's how you've got so many crossed marriages in a lot of our families."

The concept of kinship is important to Wiradjuri society and explains migration and marriage movement…"Goonoo Homestead [in Yeoval] was a sacred area. It's a bend in a river and that's where the Wiradjuri all camped," Dr Foley said. "A squatter came along and built his house there. The house is still there, but the village is gone. "When you look across the river you can still see the remains of the Aboriginal camps, that's not hard to envision — the different flat areas, the middens. It's a really interesting place..."

- Dennis Foley as quoted by the ABC

Many of the Aboriginal informants, including Wiradjuri people, who have contacted us here at Dark Emu Exposed are just not convinced that Dennis Foley is in fact a ‘we’ of the Wiradjuri people. They do not believe his stories about the Irish convict Foley’s of his family marrying Aboriginal Wiradjuri women, thereby entitling Dennis Foley himself to claim Wiradjuri descent.

Our Aboriginal informants have asked us to undertake a detailed study of Dennis Foley’s father’s family line to see if there is indeed any Wiradjuri ancestry.

We present the details of our research below.

But firstly we note that the only person we could find that really claims Dennis Foley is of Wiradjuri descent is Dennis Foley himself.

We were unable to find any newspaper articles, police, court or mission reports or births, deaths or marriage certificates that independently confirm that Dennis Foley, or one of his ancestors on his father’s side is, or was, Wiradjuri.

We also note that Dennis Foley himself has never, as far as we have been able to ascertain, produced valid documentary proof that shows he is of Wiradjuri ancestry.

Dennis Foley claims that his dad said he was Wiradjuri, but Foley provides no firm evidence beyond Dennis Foley himself telling us, ‘My dad Gordon always said he was Wiradjuri.’

In all our research, we did not find any comment by Gordon Foley himself, nor any documentary evidence that Gordon, or others, believed he was of Wiradjuri descent.

If you put yourself forward and claim that you are Aboriginal today, generally other Aboriginal people will ask you,

“Did your father (mother, parents) identify as Aboriginal”?

“Did your grandfather (grandmother, grandparents) identify as Aboriginal”?

If you answer no to these questions, then ‘real’ Aboriginal people will suspect you are just a ‘New Identifier’ or a ‘box-ticker’ and will tell you, “Well then, you are not Aboriginal.”

Aboriginal people believe that you need to have maintained your cultural and familial links from your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents to be able to identify as Aboriginal yourself.

We have found no evidence that the man in the following pictures, Dennis Foley’s father Gordon, ever presented himself as a Wiradjuri man. If Dennis learnt his Wiradjuri culture from his father why are there no photographs of Gordon appearing like his son does today, with face and body paint and wearing a possum skin cloak?

Dennis Foley also claims that his grandfather Jack (John) Foley and his wife Ruby and their ‘heap of kids (we determined it to be 5 - see Note 1 below) ‘all say they’re Wiradjuri’ (Figure 4).

Dennis then relies on a limp anecdotal story (that may or may not be true - we have found no corroborating evidence) that because his uncles took him to a site which Dennis Foley claims was a massacre site, then that proves they are Wiradjuri - ‘well it makes sense’ Dennis tells us, ‘you don’t do that unless it’s true.’ (See Figure 4).

So, using that twisted logic of Dennis Foley, if I take my children to visit Auschwitz because I want them to ‘know enough about the history’ of ‘what went on’ in the Second World War, does that mean my children can assume they are Jewish? Of course not, but in 'Dennis Foley land’ logic is not a pre-requisite: ‘Were they Jewish?’ ‘Well it makes sense … you don’t do that unless it’s true.’

**Figure 4 - Excerpt from** ***What the Colonists Never Knew, p61.***

**Figure 5 -** ***What the Colonists Never Knew, p62***

Although Dennis Foley claims his father Gordon Foley identified as Wiradjuri, the surname ‘Foley’ is derived from an original Irish convict ancestry, as Dennis records in his book, What the Colonists Never Knew.

**Figure 6 -** ***What the Colonists Never Knew, p62***

**Figure 7 -** ***What the Colonists Never Knew, p63***

Our Dark Emu Exposed researchers were able to ascertain the following details on John Foley, Dennis’s convict great-great-grandfather.

In 1832, a Warrant was issued by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to transport one, John Foley, on the convict ship the Roslyn Castle. John Foley had been convicted of Assaulting Habitation and at the age of 21 he was given a Life sentence.

We know this John Foley is actually Dennis Foley’s ancestor by the genealogical research that we completed to produce the alleged family tree in Figure 31 at the end of this post.

The Roslyn Castle set sail from Cork in Ireland on 8th October, 1832 and arrived in Sydney 5th February, 1833. John Foley was listed on the Indents [Annotated Printed Indentures, 1833] list as: John Foley, 22, R[ead], Catholic, Single, [a native of] Queen’s County, Farm Servant, Assaulting dwelling, [tried] Queen’s County, 27 July 1832. (Figure 9).

Also onboard the same convict transport ship was John Foley’s brother, Edward Foley. Edward was also sentenced along with 5 others, for the same crime of ‘Assaulting dwelling’, and sent to Australia on board the same ship, the Roslyn Castle.

Many readers might wonder, given that Dennis Foley has a PhD and he is a Professor at a University, why does his historical research into his family look so vague? He claims on page 62 of his book (Figure 6 above), “we know the boat and we roughly know their ages” [of his Foley convict ancestors].

Why, for the sake of his readers, doesn’t he state the boat’s name and their ‘rough’ ages if he claims to know them?

We amateurs at Dark Emu Exposed found the ship’s name - the Roslyn Castle - and we found the Convict Indents that lists John Foley as being 22 years old, and Edward Foley as being 24 when they set foot in the penal colony of New South Wales. It’s not rocket science Dennis.

Similarly Dennis Foley writes, ‘we can’t find any records of them actually being charged.’

This is poor research on Dennis’s part. The basic convict extracts (Figure 9 above) inform us that John Foley was 22, Catholic, Single, [a native of] Queen’s County, a Farm Servant, who was charged with Assaulting dwelling, [tried in ] Queen’s County, on 27 July 1832 and convicted by transportation with a Life sentence. He could R[ead] only, but not write, which would have been notated as “R & W”.

Why doesn’t Dennis Foley provide in his book any of these details about his ancestor, John Foley?

Is he unaware of these details? This would be a surprising admission given that Dennis Foley’s co-author, Peter Read, heads up a large staff of historical researchers on the History of Aboriginal Sydney Project. Dennis Foley himself is a contributor to this Project.

It is inconceivable that a group of academics with this amount of resources could not find the basic details of John Foley’s convict record.

Or is Dennis Foley trying to ‘spin a narrative’ about his ancestor John Foley and thus needs to hide some details of his life?

In Figure 7 above, Dennis Foley writes simply that,

‘John went to a good family. When John did his time, he went out on his own and he ended up in the back of Newcastle - Wollombi.’

This all sounds pretty innocuous, but once again Dennis Foley provides no supporting evidence - how does Dennis know he went to a good family? What was their name? Where are the details of John Foley ‘doing his time’? Did Dennis Foley locate John’s Ticket-of-Leave or Pardon? What did John Foley do when he went ‘out on his own’? How does Dennis Foley know John Foley ended up in Newcastle - Wollombi?

So much of Dennis Foley’s writing appears to be just anecdotal hearsay - he doesn’t provide documentary or corroborating evidence, nor supporting facts and figures. In a previous post, we were critical of Professor Dennis Foley’s work, which we believe is an example of what some scholars call ‘pseudo-profound bullshit.’

In our opinion, Professor Foley’s claims for his convict ancestor, John Foley are starting to look like misleading at best, or ‘psuedo-profound bullshit’ at worst.

To support our criticism, consider the following evidence that we amateurs at Dark Emu Exposed have discovered about the convict John Foley and his crimes.

The Crimes of John Foley

The record in Figure 10 above suggests that John and Edward Foley were part of a gang of farm servants who were convicted in 1832 of ‘assaulting dwelling’. We were unable to locate any newspaper records specific to John and Edward Foley’s crime, but we did locate a detailed newspaper report from three years later in 1835 of the same Irish crime of ‘assaulting a house’ [assaulting habitation] which today we would call a ‘violent home invasion.’

This newspaper report explains what a harrowing crime it could be for the victims. The Law considered ‘assaulting habitation’ as a very serious crime and it is no wonder that Dennis Foley’s ancestor John was given a Life sentence. A researcher at the Convicts Records website, Robin Sharkey on 27th June, 2022 wrote of this report:

On 18 July 1835, John Holmes was Tried at Limerick for the Crime of Assaulting habitation and given a Sentence of 7 years transportation. He had no Previous convictions; was Aged: 30 years with no education. A Roman Catholic, Married with three children and worked as a Farm Servant.

‘John Holmes and John Brown (who also arrived per ‘Surry’ with Holmes) were part of a gang of six men who, with fire-arms, assaulted the house of Michael Hayes of Carrigmore before dawn on Wednesday 25 March 1835 and threatened and intimated the two women inside - Haye’s sister and his wife. Terrifyingly, a gun was placed into the mouth of Hayes’s sister by one of the men who also burned priming at her, which would have increased her terror that they were going to carry out their threat to pull the trigger (See Further Reading Note 2 below for the full report of assaulting habitation).

The next thing we discovered about John Foley was that he was not rehabilitated as easily as Dennis Foley implies.

Unlike Professor Foley, we are able to state the name of two of the families that John Foley was put into servitude with.

In the NSW Muster of 1837, it was recorded that a John Foley, aged 24 off the transport ship Roslyn Castle, and who had been sentenced in 1831 at Queens County [these exact details confirm that this is Dennis Foley’s ancestor], was assigned to a Thomas Pendergrass, in Maitland NSW (see Figure 11).

Now, Dennis Foley does not mention John Foley’s master, Thomas Pendergrass, by name but he claims to know that his was, ‘a good family’.

How does Dennis know that? Where is Dennis Foley’s evidence enabling him to come to that conclusion? Does Dennis Foley really know of Thomas Pendergrass and his family, or is he ‘just making stuff up’ and creating ‘pseudo-profound bullshit’ to fill into his book?

We have additionally found that John Foley was assigned as well to a second farmer, John Lynch in 1846 (see below).

Dennis Foley then tells us that when John Foley did his time ‘he went out on his own’, whatever that means.

In our opinion, this is pretty sloppy writing for an academic. When we buy a book written by two academics (Read and Foley) that is published by a professional institution (National Museum Australia) we expect to find a certain level of scholarship in the researching of the book.

With a little archival research, we amateurs at Dark Emu Exposed were able to show that when ‘he went out on his own’, John Foley actually extended his criminal career for longer than Dennis Foley would have his readers believe.

After John Foley received his first Ticket of Leave, a document that we amateurs located (unlike Dennis Foley who provided no evidence or citation that John Foley ‘did his time’), John Foley did re-offend and was gaoled again. His first Ticket of Leave, No. 41/1580, was dated 8th August 1841 and is recorded as being granted to Prisoner No. 33/340, John Foley off the Roslyn Castle.

Dennis Foley informs his readers that his great-great-grandfather, the convict John Foley, ‘did his time’ and ‘ended up in the back of Newcastle - Wollombi.’ Dennis Foley provides no further detail or background on John Foley’s life at this time.

However, this lack of detail is what makes us here at Dark Emu Exposed suspicious of Dennis Foley’s motives. That is because we found in our research that, yes John Foley did go to Newcastle - into Newcastle Gaol in fact in 1842 - and he did go to Wollombi as well, as an assigned convict to the new ‘good family’[?] of farmer John Lynch. While in Wollombi he was in trouble again and he stood trial for a separate offence in 1850.

Dennis Foley has all the correct points and locations in John Foley’s life - yes, there were two Irish convict Foley’s - John and Edward; John did serve out his time and was in Newcastle and Wollombi - but Dennis Foley only tells his readers just enough detail to give the impression that John Foley was just a mild, run-of-the-mill, Irish convict who, once he served his time, quietly entered back into society with no real stain to his reputation in our modern eyes.

We are suspicious because, if Dennis Foley has all these points and locations correct, then that must mean that he has also researched John Foley’s life to a certain extent. Dennis must therefore know of John Foley’s further criminality after he arrived in NSW.

It doesn’t seem possible to us that Dennis Foley could know that there were two Irish Foleys, John and Edward who were transported as convicts, but then not know their ages or their crime. Similarly, it is not possible to know that John Foley went to Newcastle without also knowing that he went to Newcastle Gaol. It does not seem possible to know that he was also reported as being in Wollombi without knowing that he was charged with an offence there as well.

The question that needs to be asked of Professor Foley is why he did not included these details of John Foley’s life in his book, What the Colonists Never Knew?

If Dennis Foley is writing a ‘family history’ book about his ancestors one would think that the full story of John Foley’s life might be worth mentioning in detail, especially given that there is considerable, reliable documentary evidence to support it.

After John Foley received his first Ticket of Leave in 1841, the records show that he re-offended in the following year.

The Newcastle Gaol Entry Books record that in 1842 a John Foley off the Roslyn Castle and with a Ticket of Leave was sent to Hyde Park Barracks for trial. [This is Dennis’s great-great-grandfather, he being the only John Foley off the Roslyn Castle] (Figure 13)

He was found guilty of ‘driving cattle from their run, and extorting money from the owners.’

His Ticket of Leave was cancelled, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald of 21 January 1843 (Figure 14).

Admittedly, it is not a good look for one of your ancestors to be a convicted cattle thief and extortionist, but ‘the sins of the father are not the sins of the son’, so it is a bit surprising as to why Dennis Foley omitted this fact about the life of his great-great-grandfather, John Foley.

Nevertheless, a year later, in 1844, John Foley earned his second Ticket of Leave, No. 44/455, issued on 3rd February 1844, to Prisoner No. 33/340, John Foley, Roslin [Roslyn] Castle (2) (Figure 15).

By staying out of trouble for the next two years, John Foley was then able to earn his Ticket of Leave Passport in 1846. This allowed him to travel outside of his assigned area. This Passport was No. 40/647, Dated 30 June 1846 and issued to John Foley, Roslyn Castle (Figure 16).

Its special conditions were,

‘Allowed to travel between Wollombi and Maitland in charge of a team in the service of Mr John Lynch farmer Wollombi.’

Two years after receiving his Ticket-of-Leave Passport, John Foley received, in 1848, a Conditional Pardon (Figure 17).

But true to form, two years after receiving his Conditional Pardon in 1848, John Foley was in trouble with the law again.

On 28 August 1850, The Maitland Mercury published a report by the Wollombi Police on the case of the alleged horse-thief, James Moore, who was committed to stand trial in the next Circuit Court at Maitland. His brother-in-law, the one-and-only John Foley, was also brought before the bench, and fully committed to take his trial at the same time and place as Moore, for being an accessory to his (Moore's) offence after the fact. (See Note 3 below for full transcript).

Thus, Dennis Foley’s great-great-grandfather is in trouble again with the law. A record exists that both Foley and Moore were discharged from the Newcastle Gaol on the same date as the newspaper report, so possibly the charges were dropped, or both were found not guilty (Figure 18).

The point of all our research above is to support our suspicion that perhaps Professor Dennis Foley is not always being open and forthcoming in his writings.

Perhaps, like author Bruce Pascoe, he only publishes those facts about his ancestry that support the narrative that he espoused in the following ABC article,

’Intermarriage occurred during this period as pastoralists, convicts and settlers took Aboriginal wives and raised Aboriginal children, which furthered the complex nature of frontier relationships. "They [Irish convicts] were being treated by the British as badly as we [the Wiradjuri] were, so there was a commonality there," Professor Foley said.

"You can see those links; the Irish boys obviously picked up and married the Aboriginal women and that's how you've got so many crossed marriages in a lot of our families."

- Dennis Foley as quoted by the ABC

The Real Story As To Why Dennis Foley Wants to Hide the Truth

But now it all clicks - we at Dark Emu Exposed believe we know why Dennis Foley is being vague about the life details of his great-great-grandfather, John Foley.

In the Police report that was published in the Maitland Mercury above, the police say that John Foley is the brother-in-law of the accused John Moore.

That is, John Foley is married to John Moore’s sister.

For Professor Dennis Foley to claim that his father’s family line descends from the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people, he needs to show how that Wiradjuri ancestry got into his Irish Foley family.

In our opinion he has hit upon the ‘pseudo-profound bullshit’ idea that, in the case of his father’s family, the Irish convicts married Aboriginal Wiradjuri women. In the ABC article above, he claims that ‘our families’ are one of those of ‘crossed marriages’ between the ‘Irish boys’ and ‘the Aboriginal women’. This is the narrative that he is spinning to the gullible ABC.

And, in our opinion, that is why Dennis Foley doesn’t want the world to know that his convict great-great-grandfather, John Foley, one of the Irish boys, did not marry an Aboriginal woman, but instead married Mary Ann Moore, a 24 year old free-immigrant from Ireland, on 24th August 1847 in West Maitland, NSW.

At the time of their marriage John Foley was still a convict and needed to make an application to marry Mary Ann Moore (Figure 19). The marriage was also recorded in the NSW Birth Deaths and Marriages office (Figure 20).

Mary Ann Moore, John Foley’s Wife Was Not Wiradjuri

Unlike Professor Dennis Foley, we now publish here the evidence that Mary Ann Moore was born in Ireland and arrived classified as a free immigrant in 1837. She came as a 12-year-old along with her siblings and mother (Figure 21). The father, David Moore, had been convicted of stealing timber and transported to New South Wales seven years earlier. He had arrived aboard the ship the Hercules (2), which had departed Dublin on 3 July 1830 and arrived in New South Wales on 1 November 1830.

Mary Ann Moore was Irish and thus not an Aboriginal Wiradjuri woman.

Mary Ann Moore’s marriage to John Foley was her second marriage, as noted on her 1902 Death Certificate (Figure 22A&7B)

1902 Death Certificate transcript

10 November 1902, Inverell NSW

Mary Ann, Foley, Female, 80 years

Father: David Moore, Farmer; Mother: Hannah Hall

1st Husband, Michael Moore, married in Maitland, NSW - Children: Johanna, Michael, Terrance, deceased 1 male (Richard), (also a daughter, Catherine not mentioned)

2nd Husband, John Foley, married in Wollombi, NSW - Children: James, David, John, Honora, Ellen, deceased 2 females (Mary Ann & Mary), (also a daughter, Margaret not mentioned)

A Death Notice for Mary Ann Foley (nee Moore) appeared in The Inverell Times, 12 November 1902, p.5.

‘On Monday night a very old and highly respected resident of Inverell in the person of Mrs. Mary Ann Foley passed away at the age of 80 years. The deceased, who was widely known, died at the residence of her daughter Mrs. W. Lowrey in Otho-street. Other members of her family are Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Jas. Ambrose, Mrs. T. Moore, Mrs. J. Jurd, Mr. James Foley and Mr. David Foley. We extend to them our sincere sympathy in their loss.

The David Foley referred to in Mary Ann Foley’s Death Certificate and Death Notice is Professor Dennis Foley’s great-grandfather.

Contrary to what Professor Foley wants us to believe, there is no evidence that David Foley is carrying any Wiradjuri ancestry - his mother Mary Ann Moore was an Irish lass, not an Aboriginal Wiradjuri matriarch.

So Professor Foley has to take another punt and spin some ‘pseudo-profound bullshit’ to shore-up his narrative that he is of Wiradjuri descent via his father’s family. In his book, What the Colonists Never Knew, Dennis Foley tells us that,

**Figures 23A&B -** ***What the Colonists Never Knew, p63-4***

Professor Dennis Foley wants us to believe that he has Wiradjuri ancestry so, in our opinion, he has turned his great-grandfather David Foley into a ‘polygamist’ with a ‘harem’ of Aboriginal wives all over NSW in a desperate attempt to give this great-grandfather ample opportunity to produce ‘mixed-race’ offspring.

One of these offspring Dennis will claim as his own grandfather, John (Johannes) Foley, born to David Foley and the un-named ‘black wife in Tingha’. (Figure 23B above).

Dennis Foley then adds that his grandfather, John Joseph Foley [his Dad’s father] was ‘born on Tingha mission’ (Figure 24).

**Figures 24 -** ***What the Colonists Never Knew, p105***

Professor Dennis Foley provides no documentary evidence whatsoever that his ‘dad’s father was born on Tingha mission’.

That is because he can’t.

Professor Dennis Foley is once again just spinning ‘pseudo-profound bullshit’ because, as our research will show, the Aboriginal missions or reserves at Tingha had not been established when his grandfather was born.

Our researchers at Dark Emu Exposed have determined that John Joseph Foley, the son of David Foley and grandfather to Dennis Foley was born on 18 January 1889 in Inverell some 25km north of Tingha.

Contrary to what Dennis Foley tells us, he was not born to David Foley’s ‘black wife in Tingha’ (Figure 23B). His mother in fact was Mary C(atherine) Sullivan, as listed on both his Birth Certificate (Figure 25) and his Baptism Certificate (Figure 26).

David Foley had married Mary Catherine Sullivan of Inverell the previous year, on 10th January 1888 (Figure 26).

Their son, John (Johannes) Joseph Foley was born nearly exactly one year later, on 18 January 1889 (Figure 25).

David Foley did not have a ‘black wife’ - instead, Mary Catherine Sullivan was born herself on 30 April 1861, in Lochinvar (near West Maitland) New South Wales. As indicated in her Birth Certificate, both her parents, her 53 year-old father, Patrick Sullivan and her 30 year old mother Bridget Sullivan (nee Brady) were born in Ireland. (Figure 27).

Professor Dennis Foley is misleading his readers when he claims his great-grandfather ‘…had a black wife in Tingha, which is where my grandfather John (Johannes) came from...’ (Figure 23B).

The additional evidence that we have found, that confirms Professor Dennis Foley is ‘just making stuff up’ to suit his preferred narrative, relates to his claim that his ‘dad’s father [John (Johannes) Joseph Foley] was born on Tingha mission’ (Figure 24).

According to the Australian National University’s Obituaries Website, the first Aboriginal mission (reserve) at Tingha was established in 1893, which is four years after John (Johannes) Joseph Foley was born in 1889.

The two other Aboriginal missions/reserves in Tingha, Sutherland Waters and Tingha Reserve were not established until 1954 and 1970 respectively.

Below are two ‘screen-shots’ of the ANU’s Aboriginal Reserves/Missions Map of the Tingha region, 25km south of Inverell, showing the location-pins of the three Tingha reserves (Figures 28 & 29).

The earliest one, Long Gully (Ngoorumba) was only established in 1893, four years after Dennis Foley’s grandfather was born. Thus, he could not have been born there.

Perhaps Dennis Foley is correct and his great-grandfather had a ‘harem’ of Aboriginal women around NSW. That might have resulted in Foley’s of Aboriginal ancestry turning up in parts of NSW where great-grandfather David Foley had sired children.

But our Dennis Foley is not one of them. His great-grandmother was Mary Catherine Sullivan of Irish descent. There is no evidence whatsoever that there is any Wiradjuri Aboriginal ancestry in either David Foley, Mary Catherine Sullivan, their child John Joseph Foley, his son Gordon Foley nor therefore, in Professor Dennis Foley.

Neither was John Joseph Foley’s wife, Ruby Kramer Aboriginal. Her father Valentine Kramer was born in Germany and her mother’s parents Henry William Hammond and Eliza Jane Cooper were both born in England (See Note 1 and Family Tree Figure 31).

The Irish Foley Men and Their Wiradjuri Women

In our opinion, Professor Dennis Foley is just making up this whole story that the Irish Foley men married Aboriginal Wiradjuri women - it is just the same ‘pseudo-profound bullshit’ that Bruce Pascoe has used to sell books.

Like Pascoe with his Dark Emu book, Dennis Foley would mostly likely not have got the contract to write a book about Aboriginal Sydney if he was not Aboriginal himself.

Thus, it is very important for Dennis Foley himself, and his sponsors and readers in particular, to believe that he is an Aboriginal man.

But that doesn’t mean that the rest of us have to believe it.

**Figure 30 - Summary of Dennis Foley’s Paternal branch of his family tree**

Our research into the alleged family tree of Professor Dennis Foley is now complete with this post of his father’s family tree. His maternal family tree is in a previous post.

Our research shows that there are no known Aboriginal ancestors, Wiradjuri or Gai-mariagal, or any other tribe, in Professor Dennis Foley’s own family tree.

Now we may be wrong in that we may have missed some unknown information - perhaps one of the women in Dennis’s family had a illicit affair with an Aboriginal man; or maybe there was an adoption into the family of an Aboriginal child that was recorded as a birth within the family. We can’t know of these hidden scenarios, but neither has Dennis Foley himself acknowledged this possibility and relied upon it for his Aboriginality.

Figure 31 : Detailed Alleged Family Tree of Professor Dennis Foley who claims *‘his matrilineal links are with the Gai-mariagal people of north-eastern Sydney, and his patrilineal connections are with the Wiradjuri of the Turon River region in western New South Wales.’* Independent genealogical research has been unable to confirm these claims by Professor Foley. (***File here)***

Notes and Further Reading

Note 1. - Dennis Foley also claims that his grandfather Jack (John) Foley and his wife Ruby and their ‘heap of kids all say they’re Wiradjuri.’

We found the Death Certificate for Ruby in which indicates that Dennis Foley’s ‘heap of kids’ was 5 (assuming Leo and Iris were alive at that time).

We could find no evidence from any family ancestry site that Dennis’s grandparents, John Joseph (Jack) Foley and his wife Ruby (nee Kramer) or their kids ever said they were Wiradjuri.

Note 2 - Irish Crime of Assaulting Habitation

These records suggest that John and Edward Foley were part of a gang of farm servants who were convicted in 1832 of ‘assaulting a dwelling’. We were unable to locate any newspaper records specific to John and Edward Foley’s crime, but we did locate a detailed newspaper report from three years later in 1835 of the same Irish crime of ‘assaulting a house’ [assaulting habitation] which today we would call a ‘home invasion.’

This report explains what a harrowing crime it could be for the victims - no wonder Dennis Foley’s ancestor John was given a Life sentence.

A researcher at the Convicts Records website, Robin Sharkey on 27th June, 2022 wrote:

On 18 July 1835, John Holmes was Tried at Limerick for the Crime of Assaulting habitation and given a Sentence of 7 years transportation. He had no Previous convictions; was Aged: 30 years with no education. A Roman Catholic, Married with three children and worked as a Farm Servant.

‘John Holmes and John Brown (who also arrived per ‘Surry’ with Holmes) were part of a gang of six men who, with fire-arms, assaulted the house of Michael Hayes of Carrigmore before dawn on Wednesday 25 March 1835 and threatened and intimated the two women inside - Haye’s sister and his wife. Terrifyingly, a gun was placed into the mouth of Hayes’s sister by one of the men who also burned priming at her, which would have increased her terror that they were going to carry out their threat to pull the trigger.

Only Holmes and Brown were apprehended on the day of the assault, the other four escaping into the countryside. No other newspaper reports were found about any of the other four men being arrested,

Here is the report of the crime in the Freemans Journal (Ireland), Friday 27 March 1835 p.1 (taken from the Limerick Chronicle):

“Daring Outrage

“On Thursday morning, between the hours of five and six o’clock, the dwelling house of Michael Hayes of Carrigmore (Limerick) was entered by six armed persons who ransacked the premises and, not meeting Hayes, whose wife and sister were in bed at the time, they ordered the latter to sit up. On complying they insisted she open her mouth, into which they put the muzzle of a gun, swearing they would give her the contents of it if she did not tell them where her brother was. The fellow who had his gun thus placed burned priming at her.

“Hayes was returning to his house and one of the party presented his piece [ie firearm] and missed fire at him. Hayes retreated and gave the neighbours the alarm, who, after a chase of five miles, secured two of the ruffians who are now in the Tipperary bridewell.

“The only reason that can be alleged for this atrocious outrage is the circumstance of Hayes being employed by Stephen E Collis Esq, agent to the Earl of Listowell; that he prevented certain persons of taking unlawful possession of part of his Lordship’s property at Carrigmore, barony of Coonagh. It is hoped that the other four who escaped will be shortly brought to justice

“Much praise is certainly die to the country people, who rendered every assistance in apprehending the two fellows at present in custody, whose names are John Holmes and a man of the name of Brown. The entire of the fire-arms that these men had were secured by Hayes and the county people in the pursuit.”

Note 3 - 1850 The Maitland Mercury, Wollombi Police Report

Police.-On Monday last James Moore, whose address in evading the fangs of the police for a considerable time, and-whose subsequent capture at Aberdeen by chief constable Fox, were all duly reported in your paper some weeks past, was this day brought up for final examination before Major Sullivan, J.P., when he was ordered to stand committed for the next Circuit Court at Maitland, for the alleged crime of stealing one mare and a filly, the property of one Dennis Shanahan. We think a published report of the particulars of the evidence taken in this case would now, so near the eve of the prisoner's trial, be highly injudicious. We will, however, just mention that no less than eleven witnesses were examined before the bench, one or more of them attending at each of the many hearings which have taken place since the 9th instant, being the day on which he was lodged in our lockup. The prisoner declined, at each examination, to question the witnesses. – On yesterday his brother-in-law, John Foley, was brought before the bench, and fully committed to take his trial at the same time and place as Moore, for being an accessory to his (Moore's) offence after the fact.

The Maitland Mercury, 29 August 1878, p.5)

Further Reading

a) If you have Colonial Aboriginal Ancestors, These are the Types Of Records You should Find :

- The Case of James Mackey’s Aboriginality

Australians who actually do have ancestors who are the result of ‘mixed-marriages’ between Irish, English or Scottish immigrants and Aboriginal people often leave familiar traces in the historical record, as we find in the case of part-Aboriginal man, James Mackey.

In a sheep stealing case against a Thomas Woodcroft, James Mackey was referred to several times in language that confirms his Aboriginality, viz:

“….half-caste Mackey is involved…. committal of the half-caste….The accountable reason for this was the statement made by the black fellow…..”

Full Opinion Piece here from The Manaro Mercury, 21 November 1891, p5

If Dennis Foley really had an Aboriginal ancestor we would expect to find records that appeared like James Mackey’s - they definitively should have stated that the ancestor was a ‘half-caste’ , a ‘black fellow’ or an ‘Aborigine’. We would have also expected that portraits of family members would look decidely Aboriginal such as in James Mackay’s gaol record below.

We found none of this type of evidence in Dennis Foley’s family.

b) Tingha Aboriginal Reserves

Shown below are some images of the Aboriginal Reserve at Long Gully, Tingha in the 1930s.

This mission was established in 1893, four years after Dennis Foley’s claims his grandfather John (Johannes) Foley was born there in 1889. Source

tinga missionary fullsizeoutput_316a.jpg

tinga missionary 28958657_10156152137706303_8381614096730030080_n.jpg

c) More Florid Narrative from Dennis Foley

From a Canberra Univerity webpage:

Identifying as Koori, Dennis’ matrilineal connection is Gai-mariagal of the northern suburbs of Sydney, including the Cammeraigal clan. His father is a descendant of the Capertee/Turon River people, of the Wiradjuri.

And his story began in the heart of a large and loving family – until he was stolen from them.

That was a catalyst for the anger that once drove him, but which he has – in large part – transmuted into a passion for knowledge-driven change.

“I only went to university when I was 40,” he says.

“I liked school, and I really enjoyed sports – but my teachers used to tell me I was just a dumb black lad”.

- Canberra uni

We have located two photographs of the ‘dumb black lad’ in his sports uniform.

**Source : *What the Colonists Never Knew*, p164**

Griffith University Alumni and Giving

Professor Dennis Foley is a Fullbright Scholar working to drive change within indigenous communities.

One of many leading figures in First Nations education, Professor Foley is also lauded as one of the fathers of Indigenous business and entrepreneurship development in Australia.

In 2022 he was named Griffith University's Outstanding First Peoples Alumnus.

Categories

Authors

Sep 26 Dennis Foley Claims he is a Wiradjuri Aboriginal Man - Really? - Part 3

The Crimes of John Foley

The Real Story As To Why Dennis Foley Wants to Hide the Truth

Mary Ann Moore, John Foley’s Wife Was Not Wiradjuri

The Irish Foley Men and Their Wiradjuri Women

Notes and Further Reading

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Categories

Authors

Sep 26 Dennis Foley Claims he is a Wiradjuri Aboriginal Man - Really? - Part 3

The Crimes of John Foley

The Real Story As To Why Dennis Foley Wants to Hide the Truth

Mary Ann Moore, John Foley’s Wife Was Not Wiradjuri

The Irish Foley Men and Their Wiradjuri Women

Notes and Further Reading

Sep 28 The Re-Imagining of Moreland

Sep 21 Is Dennis Foley a Purveyor of 'Pseudo-profound Bullshit'? - Part 2

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