From outsider to first citizen: Catherine Connolly's long road to Aras an Uachtarain

"Growing up in the close-knit working-class community of Shantalla was a formative experience for our 10th president"

"In her first ever words as an elected representative, Catherine Connolly claimed politics was not a career she had chosen."

""I was a most reluctant candidate," she told the small gathering at the Westside count centre when she was first elected to Galway Corporation in 1999 - already casting herself as an outsider, which would become a trademark of her political career."

Catherine Connolly’s upbringing in the close-knit working-class community of Shantalla played a formative role in her life and identity. In her first public words as an elected representative she stated that politics was not a career she had chosen and described herself as a reluctant candidate. During a small gathering at the Westside count centre when first elected to Galway Corporation in 1999 she framed herself as an outsider. That outsider positioning subsequently became a defining characteristic of her political career and public persona.

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