Connolly was first elected to Galway City Council in the city west local electoral area in June 1999 and then re-elected in the city south local electoral area in 2004.[4] In the same year she was elected Mayor of Galway.
She resigned from the Labour Party in 2006, when she was denied her wish to run alongside now-President Michael D. Higgins in Galway West.[5] She contested the 2007 general election, polling just over 2,000 votes.[5]
Her sister, Colette, currently a Galway City Councillor,[6] was co-opted to replace her on Galway City Council when she was elected a TD.[7]
National politics
Connolly contested the 2011 general election again in Galway West,[8] where she lost out on the last seat to Fine Gael's Seán Kyne by only 17 votes. She sought a full recount,[9] which concluded after a total of four days of counting but did not change the outcome.[10]
She was elected to the Dáil for the Galway West constituency at the 2016 general election.
In January 2021, Connolly criticised the Government for their handling of the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters).
Referring to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth as the "three unwise men", she was critical of the Government's failure to provide survivors of mother and baby homes the report before it was released to the general public.[15] Connolly stated: "This document I have to hand is what the report looks like. I hold it up to show survivors because they do not have it. It is the executive summary with the recommendations and one or two other things. Not a single survivor has it. I have it since yesterday, when it was put in the pigeonholes of Deputies."[15]
^"Catherine Connolly". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 28 February 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
^ abSiggins, Lorna. "FF vulnerable while Labour exposed as Higgins bows out"Archived 3 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine. 3 February 2011. The Irish Times. "The real threat to Nolan will come from dissident Labourites, principally councillor and barrister Catherine Connolly, who resigned in protest in 2006 when she was denied her wish to run alongside Higgins. Connolly subsequently polled just over 2,000 votes in 2007."