[7] 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.

[11] At the 32nd Dáil's second meeting on 5 April 2016, she made her maiden speech in which she criticised the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Alan Kelly's handling of Ireland's homelessness crisis.

[13] Connolly was elected the Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann on 23 July 2020, in a surprise victory over Fine Gael candidate Fergus O'Dowd, and was the first woman to hold the position.

[14] 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.

A barrister by profession, she also previously worked as a clinical psychologist, with the Western Health Board in Ballinasloe, Galway and Connemara.