Diarmuid Connolly (born 7 July 1987) is an Irish

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er. His

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

and championship career at senior level as a forward playing for the Dublin county team initially spanned 11 seasons from 2007 until 2018 when he left the panel after appearing in a

game against Mayo in February 2018. In July 2019, Dublin senior football manager Jim Gavin confirmed in an interview with Dubs TV that Connolly was back training with the Dublin panel for the 2019 Championship. He went on to win sixth All Ireland title in September 2019. In October 2020, Connolly announced his retirement from inter-county football.

Early life

Born in Dublin, Connolly inherited a passion for sport from his

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

-born father and County Clare-born mother. He was educated at his secondary school Ardscoil Rís where he played competitive Gaelic football and

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

, and attended Scoil Mhuire Marino for Primary School while he also played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

with

Belvedere F.C. Belvedere Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Fairview/Clontarf, Dublin. Belvedere currently fields teams in the Dublin & District Schoolboy League. The club has also entered teams in the FAI Youth Cup, the FAI Under-1 ...

and

Home Farm F.C. Home Farm Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Whitehall, Dublin. It was founded in 1928. The club joined the League of Ireland in 1972 after merging with Drumcondra. Following this merger they were briefly known as Home ...

Career

Connolly first came to prominence as a Gaelic footballer and hurler at juvenile and underage levels with St Vincent's. He made his debut with the club's senior team in 2004. Since then Connolly has two All-Ireland Club Football medals. He has also won four Leinster medals and four county championship medals. Diarmuid has won 7 all irelands. Connolly made his debut on the inter-county scene when he was selected for the Dublin minor team in 2005. After an unsuccessful minor tenure, he later joined the Dublin under-21 teams as a dual player and won a Leinster medal as a hurler. Connolly made his senior debut during the

2007 O'Byrne Cup The 2007 O'Byrne Cup was a Gaelic football competition played by the teams of Leinster GAA. The competition differs from the Leinster Senior Football Championship as it also features further education colleges. O'Byrne Cup First round The fi ...

. He won five All-Ireland medals, beginning with lone triumphs in 2011 and 2013, and followed by three successive championships from 2015 to 2017. Connolly also won ten Leinster medals and four National League medals. He received two All Star awards in 2014 and 2016. In June 2017, Connolly received a 12-week ban after physical interference with linesman Ciaran Branagan during Dublin's win against

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

in the quarter-final of the

2017 Leinster Senior Football Championship The 2017 Leinster Senior Football Championship was the 2017 installment of the annual Leinster Senior Football Championship organised by Leinster GAA. Dublin were the defending champions, having won their 55th title and completed a 6-in-a-row in ...

. In March 2018, Connolly left the Dublin senior football panel to spend the summer in Boston playing for

Donegal Boston Donegal Boston GFC is a Gaelic football club which was founded in 1988 in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston is the second largest division of the GAA on the North American continent, after New York. They train on Malibu Beach, Dorchester. Among ...

. He subsequently won the championship with the Boston club. In July 2019, Dublin senior football manager Jim Gavin confirmed in an interview with Dubs TV that Diarmuid Connolly was back training with the Dublin panel for the 2019 championship season.

Peil Star film

In 2016, Diarmuid Connolly appeared in a Street Gaelic Football film created by Peil Star with Dublin teammate

Shane Carthy Shane Carthy is a Gaelic footballer who plays for Naomh Mearnóg CLG and for the Dublin county team. He was a member of the Dublin squad that won the 2016 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the 2016 National Football League. In Janu ...

and New York footballer C. J. Molloy. In the video, Connolly kicks a Gaelic football across the River Liffey in Dublin.

Career statistics

Honours

St Vincents * Dublin Senior Football Championship (5): 2007, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 * Leinster Senior Club Football Championship (4): 2007, 2013, 2014, 2016 * All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship (2):

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Dublin * All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (6):

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

* Leinster Senior Football Championship (10):

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

* National Football League (4):

* O'Byrne Cup (4):

* Leinster Under-21 Hurling Championship (1):

Individual * GAA GPA All-Star Award (2): 2014, 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, Diarmuid 1987 births Living people Donegal Boston Gaelic footballers Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers Dublin inter-county hurlers Dual players Gaelic football forwards St Vincents (Dublin) Gaelic footballers St Vincents (Dublin) hurlers Winners of six All-Ireland medals (Gaelic football)