Catherine Connolly

Catherine Connolly is an Irish Independent politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for Galway West since 2016. As a member of the Labour Party, she was Mayor of Galway from 2004 to 2005 and is currently a member of the Independents 4 Change group as of April 2016.

Connolly was first elected to Galway City Council in the West local electoral area in June 1999 and then re-elected in the South local electoral area in 2004. In the same year she was elected Mayor of the City. She speaks Irish and English. Her sister, Collette, is a fellow city councillor.

She resigned from the Labour Party in 2006 when she was denied her wish to run alongside now-President Michael D. Higgins. She contested the 2007 general election, polling just over 2,000 votes.

She contested the 2011 general election in Galway West, where she lost the last seat to Fine Gael's Seán Kyne by only 17 votes. She sought a full recount, which concluded after a total of 4 days of counting but did not change the outcome.

She was elected to the Dáil for the Galway West constituency at the Irish general election, 2016. She voted for Richard Boyd Barrett for Taoiseach when the 32nd Dáil first met. At the 32nd Dáil's second meeting on 5 April 2016, she made her maiden speech in which she criticised Labour environment minister Alan Kelly's handling of Ireland's homelessness crisis.

Catherine sits on the Public Accounts Committee and is Chair of the Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands.

Originally from Shantalla, Connolly has lived in the Claddagh since 1988, and is married with two children. A former barrister, she also previously worked as a Clinical Psychologist with the Western Health Board in Ballinasloe, Galway City and Connemara.