David Sneyd

THERE WAS A time not so long ago when a woman from Kerry helped feed the players and staff of Luton Town.

Their pre-match meal ahead of today’s Championship play-off final with Coventry City will be somewhat different considering the prize of Premier League football is on the line.

Snack Attack was a cafe about one mile from the club’s ground at Kenilworth Road.

It was a staple in the community for 20 years before Covid-19 led to the shutters coming down for the final time in the midst of the pandemic.

During its pomp, the bright, beaming smile of co-owner Kathleen Foley was a constant.

And so were her sandwiches.

And stew.

During the week, when training was finished just up the road, the first-team squad and club staff would pile in to fill their bellies.

For a club that endured near financial collapse, entering administration and eventually dropping out of the English Football League to the National League – formerly the Vauxhall Conference, a cruel irony given the sizeable plant that offered employment to many of those Irish immigrants who settled there – every volunteer made a difference.

Fitting, then, that Kathleen Foley will be at Wembley today along with her family to support her adopted club.

At the turn of the century, her eldest son also just happened to emerge from the academy to establish himself at right back.

Three successive young player of the year awards give an indication of Kevin Foley’s talent – although it would only be after his €1.1 million move to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2007 that he would become a senior Republic of Ireland international.

“It’s mad, I remember reading Mick McCarthy’s book growing up, his diary from Italia 90, and then he signed me for Wolves,” Foley recalls.

Most will recall he was later cut from the Euro 2012 squad by manager Giovanni Trapattoni while on a pre-tournament training camp in Italy just hours before the final selection had to be submitted to UEFA.

He was a long way from home then.

Kevin Foley in action for Luton Town. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Luton is where he grew up, with ties that remain just as strong to south Kerry.

His father Patsy moved from Waterville to London in the early 1980s, meeting Kathleen who was from nearby Dromid.

Patsy is still a labourer working with shuttering, while Kathleen set up Snack Attack with a friend after working as a chambermaid in hotels around the English capital. She was one of 10 brothers and sisters, some of whom left for New York, England or simply dispersed around Ireland.

The Foleys were one of numerous families with a similar story in Luton.

A 2019 research report from the Luton Irish Forum, in conjunction with the Irish Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that “a conservative estimate of the Irish community, including Irish descent in Luton, based on the 2011 census, is 15,000″, with the town having “a far larger Irish population than the country as a whole (White Irish – Luton 3%, England 0.9%).

Foley felt that sense of identity even more so when the family moved 30 miles north to Luton from London when he was six-years-old.

Football was always his first love, even if he also grew up playing GAA with local club Claddagh Gaels. When he would return for summers in Kerry with his parents and younger brother Shaun, Foley would caddy at Waterville Golf Club, go fishing and, of course, play Gaelic football.

“I learned the hard way not to dribble the ball,” Foley laughs.

Foley (left) in action against Italy's Giuseppe Rossi. Donall Farmer / INPHO Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO

Darren O’Sullivan, who won five All-Irelands for Kerry, is a second cousin, and in England, some of his friends who spoke like him but didn’t have the same background, didn’t quite understand the links to home.

“People would say I’m not really Irish, that I’m fake, but I didn’t let that get me angry,” he explains.

“I had the strongest Kerry accents in my house. Friends growing up, in the car on the way to football with my Dad, they wouldn’t have a clue when he spoke. I’d tell them just to nod and I’ll explain.

“But Mum and Dad were always laid back and didn’t push us into anything, they were supportive all the way of what we wanted to do.”

His path would lead him through Luton Town’s academy, into the first-team and eventually to the Premier League with Wolves.

And now, with his hometown club on the brink of promotion there for the first time (and a first stint in England’s top flight since 1992) Foley is preparing for a day out at Wembley with his family.

“I love it, I would love the world to see Premier League football at Kenilworth Road,” he beams. “I’ve just sorted 11 tickets for everyone there. My wife and [three] kids. My mum and dad, their partners, my brother and his partner. What a day it will be.”

Luton's Kevin Foley challenges Ashley Young during his spell with Watford. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Ironically, the last time Foley was at Wembley he was actually a Coventry player, when they Sky Blues played in the Papa Johns Trophy final. He was cup tied so couldn’t feature, but there are no doubts about where his loyalties lie.

Occasions like today also bring back the memories of growing up as a fan before entering the professional system.

In St Margaret’s Irish Social Club, that is where a nine-year-old Foley watched Ray Houghton lob Gianluca Pagliuca as Ireland beat Italy in the 1994 World Cup.

Eight years later he was an apprentice at Luton when he was back in St Margaret’s for the early morning games in South Korea and Japan. It also coincided with an early trial in Dublin for the Irish underage set-up along with 30 to 40 other hopefuls, just as the Saipan debate began to rage.

“It was crazy. It was all about whose side you were on: Roy Keane or Mick McCarthy’s,” Foley remembers.

This afternoon there will be no doubts, and younger sibling Shaun – now 35 – has already made sure his big brother has one of his old Luton match-worn jerseys with his name on the back waiting for when he lands.

“It’s crazy. He lives in Dublin now but all through his 20s he spent it travelling the world. He spent years in America, Australia, Sierra Leone and then New Zealand.

“That’s actually where he met his partner Maeve. Would you believe it, her Dad is from the same village in Kerry as my Mum! They settled in Dublin now and have a lovely house that backs right on to Na Fianna GAA club.

“They have a baby boy and he named him Axel. That’s my brother for you. So there will be a little Axel Foley running around Dublin soon.”

Today, though, the Foleys are heading to Wembley with Luton Town.