Kara Foley

Kara Foley is a Radio Radar Technician in the Irish Defence Forces. She joined the Irish Naval Service in 2002. After training and serving as a communications operator afloat for 2 years she completed a BEng in Cork Institute of Technology in Electronic Engineering and qualified as a Radio Radar Technician in the Irish Naval Service. Since qualifying she has served both ashore and afloat as a technician. She is the first and only female Radio Radar Technician to reach the rank of Petty Officer in the Naval Service. While serving ashore she has taken charge of many communications refits for different ships and provided shore based support for ships at sea. Her most recent deployment afloat saw her travelling to the Mediterranean on Operation IRINI (EUNAVFORMED), where her ship worked with other foreign navies, to help enforce the arms embargo on Libya. She was also part of the crew on board LE William Butler Yeats for the detention of MV Matthew and the seizure of an estimated €157m worth of cocaine – the largest ever drugs seizure in the state! She is currently serving afloat on the LE James Joyce.