Connolly first came to prominence as a Gaelic footballer and hurler at juvenile and underage levels with
St Vincent's. He made his debut with the club's senior team in 2004. Since then Connolly has two
All-Ireland Club Football medals. He has also won four
Leinster medals and four
county championship medals. Diarmuid has won 6 all irelands. Connolly made his debut on the inter-county scene when he was selected for the Dublin minor team in 2005. After an unsuccessful minor tenure, he later joined the Dublin under-21 teams as a
dual player and won a
Leinster medal as a hurler. Connolly made his senior debut during the
2007 O'Byrne Cup. He won five
All-Ireland medals, beginning with lone triumphs in 2011 and 2013, and followed by three successive championships from 2015 to 2017. Connolly also won ten
Leinster medals and four
National League medals. He received two All Star awards in 2014 and 2016. In June 2017, Connolly received a 12-week ban after physical interference with linesman Ciaran Branagan during Dublin's win against
Carlow in the quarter-final of the
2017 Leinster Senior Football Championship. In March 2018, Connolly left the Dublin senior football panel to spend the summer in
Boston playing for
Donegal Boston. He subsequently won the championship with the Boston club. In July 2019, Dublin senior football manager
Jim Gavin confirmed in an interview with Dubs TV that Diarmuid Connolly was back training with the Dublin panel for the 2019 championship season. ==Personal life==