Des Connolly was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

er from

County Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

. Connolly was a native of Ballyfoyle in the Ballylinan parish but played all his club football with the

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a population of 27,351, the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland, ...

border club, Graiguecullen. Considered to be one of Laois's greatest ever players, he was however only a substitute when the county won the

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster GAA, Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Asso ...

final against Kildare in 1946. Laois didn't win the

again until 2003 when

Mick O'Dwyer Michael O'Dwyer (9 June 1936 – 3 April 2025) was an Irish Gaelic football manager and player. He most famously managed the senior Kerry county team between 1974 and 1989, during which time he became the county's longest-serving manager, and ...

led them to victory.

References

* Leinster Express (1999). ''Laois GAA Yearbook'' Year of birth missing Possibly living people Graiguecullen Gaelic footballers Laois inter-county Gaelic footballers {{Laois-gaelic-football-bio-stub