Researching John Connolly

Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1927. He received a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and also taught at the university for a period. He studied law at Université de Montréal and was called to the Quebec bar and the Ontario bar. He was a Queen's Counsel.

During World War II, he was the executive assistant to Angus Lewis Macdonald, Minister of National Defence for Naval Services. In 1944, he played a pivotal role in the dismissal of Vice-Admiral Percy W. Nelles, the highest-ranking officer in the Royal Canadian Navy. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his work during the war.

A law professor, Connolly was appointed to the Senate of Canada as a Liberal by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent on June 12, 1953. From 1961 to 1964 he served as the federal party's president. In 1964, he was appointed to the Cabinet by Lester Pearson becoming Leader of the Government in the Canadian Senate and Minister without portfolio. He served as government leader until 1968 when Pearson retired and remained a Senator until his own retirement in 1981.

State and federal officers had been trying to imprison Bulger for years, but he evaded capture until 2011. As the FBI handler for Bulger and Flemmi, Connolly (who had grown up in the Old Harbor Housing Project with Bulger) had been protecting them from prosecution by supplying Bulger with information about possible attempts to catch them. Connolly was indicted on December 22, 1999, on charges of alerting Bulger and Flemmi to investigations, falsifying FBI reports to cover their crimes, and accepting bribes.

In 2000, Connolly was charged with additional racketeering-related offenses. He was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to ten years in federal prison. In 2008, Connolly was convicted on state charges of second-degree murder in Florida and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was released from federal prison on June 28, 2011, and transferred to the Florida State Prison to serve the remainder of his sentence for his 2008 conviction.

In April 2020, Connolly asked to be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence on home confinement due to fears of contracting novel coronavirus/COVID-19, citing a 2018 federal law allowing for compassionate release under "extraordinary" circumstances, such as age, health and other critical factors. A Miami-Dade judge initially declined to order his release, but Connolly was later granted a medical release on February 17, 2021.

As a rugby player, Connolly played hooker for the Brothers club in Brisbane. From 1980 through to 1982, Connolly acted as a player and a coach for a rugby team in Darwin. His first major coaching position was with the Brothers club in Brisbane in 1983, acting as the reserve grade coach for three years, taking the team to two premierships. Subsequent roles came to him as he was appointed as the Under 19s and Under 21s Queensland rugby union coach. In 1989, Connolly took up a coaching position within the Queensland Rugby team. In 1991, Connolly served as an Australian selector. During his time with Queensland, the side won the Super Six in 1992 and the Super 10 Championship in 1994 and 1995.

With the inception of the Super 12 competition in Australia in 1996, Connolly continued his position at the Queensland Reds. The Reds won the minor premiership that year, and Connolly went on to win the Super 12 Coach of the Year award in both 1998 and 1999, the Reds also winning the minor premiership in 1999 as well. He went over to France the following season, where he took up a position at the Stade Français rugby club. The club won the premiership during the 1999-2000 season and were Heineken Cup finalists that same year as well as the next. He then coached at Swansea RFC in Wales.

He then took up a position at the Bath Rugby club in England, where Michael Foley had been signed as their forwards coach, Foley had previously played as hooker under Connolly at the Queensland Reds. Connolly was awarded the Zurich Premiership Director of the Year award as well and Bath won the minor premiership in the 2003-04 season. Bath went on to meet the London Wasps in the final, with the Wasps winning in the end. The following year they were finalists in the Powergen Cup.

In early February 2006 Connolly was appointed as the new head coach of the Australian team. In his first Test in charge, Australia defeated England in the first of two games in Australia. Australia then finished second in the 2006 Tri Nations Series.

Following the defeat to England in the quarter-finals of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Connolly's term as coach of the Wallabies had expired.

He got his nickname, 'Knuckles', as a nightclub bouncer in Darwin years ago.

Connolly suffered serious spinal fractures along with a broken arm and dislocated shoulder after a two-metre fall at his father Jack’s Brisbane home In August 2021.

Born in Leitir Móir, County Galway, Connolly first played competitive hurling whilst at school in St. Mary's College, Galway. He arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he first linked up with the Galway minor team, before later joining the under-21 side. He made his senior debut in the 1967 championship. Connolly went on to play a key role for Galway for more than a decade, and won one All-Ireland medal and one National Hurling League medal. He was an All-Ireland runner-up on three occasions.

As a member of the Connacht inter-provincial team at various times, Connolly won one Railway Cup medal in 1980. At club level he is a one-time All-Ireland medallist with Castlegar. In addition to this he also won four Connacht medals and six championship medals.

Throughout his career Connolly made 26 championship appearances for Galway. His retirement came following the conclusion of the 1981 championship.

Connolly is widely regarded as one of Galway's greatest-ever hurlers. He has often been voted onto teams made up of the sport's greats, including at left full-forward on the Galway Hurling Team of the Millennium.

As the eldest of the Connolly dynasty, many of his brothers, Pádraic, Joe, Michael, Tom, Gerry and Murt, played with distinction for Castlegar and Galway.

In retirement from playing, Connolly became involved in team management and coaching. He has served as a coach and selector with the Galway senior team, while at club level he also served as manager of the Castlegar senior team.

Connolly was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to an Irish Catholic father who served in the British military and a woman of English descent . He is best known for a plan he concocted with Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore to raise a regiment of loyalists and Indians in Canada called the Loyal Foresters and lead them to Virginia to help Dunmore put down the rebellion. In the early 1770s Connolly was the leading figure at the Forks of the Ohio in present-day Western Pennsylvania in Virginia's claims to the region surrounding Pittsburgh. He was even arrested by the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Sheriff for inciting pioneers to ally with Virginia and released on the condition that he would return for trial and stop his crusade only to capture Fort Pitt and declare it for Virginia. Connolly was traveling from Williamsburg, Virginia to Fort Detroit to carry out this plan when he was captured in Hagerstown, Maryland on 20 November 1775. Connolly was imprisoned for the remainder of the American Revolution.