Cresson, Pa. - Mount Aloysius College President Tom Foley has been named to The Irish Voice newspaper’s 2012 Irish Education 100. The recognition lists the top figures in education across North America who have Irish heritage. The prestigious 2012 Irish Education 100 Awards were presented recently at the New York City residence of Irish Consul General Noel Kilkenny. President Foley, the 13th president of Mount Aloysius College, has been named to the Irish 100 in Education for the second consecutive year.  In addition to his native Irish heritage, President Foley worked directly for peace in Northern Ireland during the height of the partisan period known as The Troubles there.

As a law student, President Foley took a two-year leave of absence from Yale Law School to return to Belfast, volunteering full-time for the Nobel Prize winning Peace People. He wrote many of their seminal documents during the volatile period of the hunger strikes. Notable among these was their parliamentary submission on the need for change in the emergency laws that had long been used to govern Northern Ireland. He was also co-founder of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), the only non-partisan justice organization in Northern Ireland at the time. The CAJ is still in operation.

His illustrated monograph entitled, “Right and Responsibilities of Young People Under the Law” was widely acclaimed as the first effort to explain the workings of the legal system to young people who were increasingly subject to it. This monograph continued to be re-published by several youth organizations in Northern Ireland and was the subject of numerous radio and television stories.

Foley’s article entitled, “Public Security and Individual Freedom: The Dilemma of Northern Ireland,” published originally in the Yale Journal of World Public Order, was cited frequently in other journals and used in court cases. Foley also wrote an analysis of the failure of international human rights teams to address the situation in Northern Ireland, and on the importance of independent police review boards. 

Foley also spent five years in Washington, D.C. where he worked for Congressman James M. Shannon and then-Senator Joseph R. Biden. Much of his work focused on justice and economic development issues for Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The Mount Aloysius College President then spent seven years of his career working for Pennsylvania Governor Robert P. Casey. He served in two cabinet-level posts for Governor Casey and was the youngest Secretary of Labor and Industry in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Thomas P. Foley, J.D. is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College and received his juris doctorate from Yale University Law School. At Yale, he served as an editor of the Yale Journal of World Public Order, coach of the undergraduate debate team and was a member of the university’s championship rugby team, a sport he took up during his years in Ireland.

Foley grew up in a family of 12 children. His grandparents were natives of County Mayo, Ireland. President Foley and his wife, Michele, have three sons, Thomas, Matt and Andrew.

In addition to Mount Aloysius President Foley, other honorees from higher education, science, business, community organizations and government include: Kevin Cahill, M.D., director of Fordham University’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs; Sr. Margaret Carney, 20^th president of St. Bonaventure University, western New York; Dr. James P. Quigley, professor in the Cell Biology Department at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California; Dr. Michael K. O’Connor, professor of medical physics at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, N.Y.; John E. Murray, first lay president of Duquesne University, currently serves as chancellor and professor of law, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pa.;  Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., 32^nd president of Fordham University, New York, N.Y.; Rev. Brian Linnane, 24^th president of Loyola University, Baltimore, MD; Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., 25^th president of Boston College, Boston, Mass.; Dr. Mary Hines, ninth president of Carlow University, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC, 17^th president of Notre Dame University, South Bend, Ind. ; and Declan Kilberd, the Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind.

CAPTION: Mount Aloysius College President Tom Foley, at right, with Irish Consul General Noel Kilkenny during the Irish Education 100, 2012 Reception held recently at the Irish Consulate, New York.