Sydney gang boss Laurence ‘Larry’ Foley used his fists to get to the top

Laurence ‘Larry’ Foley’s success as a boxer and gang leader was a far cry from the religious life he was originally thought destined for

Australia's bare knuckle champion fighter Larry Foley, who later became trainer of champions before this form of boxing was banned in 1884.

He had fists of steel and knew how to apply them with devastating effect in the ring. But champion pugilist Laurence ‘‘Larry’’ Foley also found time to run one of the most feared gangs in Sydney. It was the late 19th century and Sydney’s Rocks precinct was in the grip of the Push gangs.

These brazen and fearless thugs were a law unto themselves, kicking victims to death in broad daylight and not scared to take on the police.

The Push gangs pitched Catholics against Protestants, predecessors of the rival factions of the Assyrian Kings currently battling for supremacy on the streets of southwestern Sydney who adorn themselves with religious tattoos.

One of the most formidable gangs was the (Catholic) Greens, at one stage headed by Foley. With the best head puncher in Sydney as their chief, the Greens made the Rocks streets run red.

Foley liked to tell people he was born on the goldfields near Bathurst in 1852 but in fact he was born in 1849, before the NSW goldfields opened up.

An artist’s impression of a Push gang member.

He was baptised in 1852 in a Catholic Church at Penrith and as a lad looked destined for a career in the clergy.

He went to Wollongong where he was a servant to Father Dean O’Connell, the first Australian-born diocesan priest.

But Foley decided, at the age of 18, that a religious life was not for him and ran off to Sydney to become a labourer in the construction industry.

Laurence ‘Larry’ Foley in boxing garb.

As a young lad in the big city he joined other lads from an Irish Catholic background and was soon involved with the Green.

Foley had a few fights before coming to Sydney, but once here took serious boxing lessons from retired former bare-knuckle boxing champion John “Black” Perry, a Canadian negro who had come to Sydney in the 1840s.

Foley fought his first bouts in the street, his first notable victory was in 1871 against Sandy Ross, the leader of the Orange Push, the Protestant enemy of the Greens, at Como, in Sydney’s south. According to one account the fight went for more than two hours over 71 rounds before police stopped it.

To decide the issue the men later met again at Port Hacking where Foley knocked Ross out after a 28-minute fight.

With Foley’s victory his Greens assumed leadership of the gangs in the Rocks.

Foley divided his time between fighting and running his gang but despite this violence he was embraced by the public because of his boxing matches, which were illegal in Australia at the time.

He managed a win or a draw in every bout.

The pinnacle of his fighting career was a match against Abe Hicken in 1879, which was slated to be held in Melbourne but to avoid police attention was held in Echuca, the spectators shipped in by ferry or train.

George St, Sydney, in 1885 Larry Foley’s White Horse Hotel. Picture: National Library of Australia

After 16 punishing rounds Hicken’s team threw in the sponge and Foley pocketed £1000. The punters who backed him were reported to be as “happy as Larry”, with some suggesting that is where the expression was born.

Foley retired from the ring in 1879 and later bought the White Horse Hotel on George St where he set up a gym and staged fights.

In 1883 he briefly emerged from retirement to fight the English-born “Professor” William Miller. After 40 rounds Foley was on the verge of being pounded into the canvas when the fight was stopped by Foley’s fans rushing the ring. Despite occasional threats to stage a rematch between Foley and Ross, he never returned to fighting.

Foley’s gang activities took second place to his role as a publican and a boxing trainer and by the end of the 1800s the Rocks Push gangs had been largely broken up by the police.

Foley became respectable as the NSW government’s official demolition contractor and was even considered for the job of sergeant-at-arms in Parliament.

He suffered a heart attack at a Turkish bath in 1917 and died a few days later. He is buried in the Catholic section of the cemetery at Waverley.

Originally published as Sydney gang boss Laurence ‘Larry’ Foley used his fists to get to the top