{"id":105272,"date":"2025-10-26T16:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T16:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/105272\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T16:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T16:42:09","slug":"inside-catherine-connollys-family-life-with-husband-two-children-and-well-known-sister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/105272\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Catherine Connolly’s family life with husband, two children and well known sister"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Connolly, Ireland’s next president, comes from a large family in Galway and has been married for over 30 years.\"CatherineCatherine Connolly will be the next president of Ireland(Image: Instagram\/catherine.connollytd)<\/p>\n

Catherine Connolly<\/a> has been in politics for nearly 30 years and now she’s turning her attention to Aras an Uachtarain.<\/p>\n

The left-wing independent candidate will become Ireland’s 10th president <\/a>after she secured 63% of first preference votes in a landslide victory.<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s election saw Catherine go head-to-head with former Fine Gael minister Heather Humphreys<\/a> after ex-Dublin football manager Jim Gavin <\/a>withdrew from campaigning three weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Addressing the assembled crowd after being declared the winner, Catherine pledged to be a president for all.<\/p>\n

The Galway native has served in many different political roles and it isn’t just a career for her, as it also runs in her family.<\/p>\n

Early life<\/p>\n

Catherine was born on 12 July 1957, making her 68 years old. She is originally from Galway <\/a>and grew up in the suburb of Shantalla, RSVP <\/a>reports.<\/p>\n

The politician comes from a big family, with seven brothers and six sisters. They were raised by their father, who was a carpenter and a shipbuilder, and her mother, who sadly passed away when Catherine was nine-years-old.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine Connolly is pictured at Dublin castle as she is declared the winner of the presidential election <\/p>\n

She attended university and went on to complete her master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Leeds in 1981. She also obtained a law degree from the University of Galway in 1989.<\/p>\n

Political career<\/p>\n

Catherine worked as clinical psychologist with the Western Health Board in Ballinasloe before later becoming a barrister in 1991. She went on to turn her attention to politics in the late 1990s when she joined the Labour Party.<\/p>\n

In 1999, she was elected to Galway City Council for Labour in the west city local electoral area, but since then she has held many different roles in government.<\/p>\n

She became Mayor of Galway, a TD for Galway West, before being elected the Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dail Eireann.<\/p>\n

Catherine announced that she would be running for President of Ireland in July 2025, winning in a landslide victory on October 25.<\/p>\n

Family<\/p>\n

Catherine has been married to her husband Brian McEnery for 33 years after they tied the knot in 1992.<\/p>\n

The couple has maintained a private relationship over the years, however, Brian has appeared alongside as she was announced as the next president of Ireland.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine Connolly kisses her husband at Dublin castle as she is declared the winner of the presidential election on October 25, 2025<\/p>\n

Catherine and Brian have two adult sons.<\/p>\n

Politics runs in her family as her sister Collette is also a former Galway city councillor. She served in the position for 18 years before retiring in 2024.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly, Ireland’s next president, comes from a large family in Galway and has been married for over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3656,321,93,4500,2044,61,60,9827,2043],"class_list":["post-105272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-galway","tag-heather-humphreys","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-presidential-election","tag-jim-gavin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}