Aidan Connolly
Political Consultant and
Acting Executive Director
Irish Arts Center

Biography

AIDAN CONNOLLY serves as a political director and advisor to Maureen White, the noted philanthropist and former National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and Steven Rattner, Managing Principal of Quadrangle Group, an investment firm.   In March 2007, he was appointed as Acting Executive Director of the Irish Arts Center, a New York-based performing arts and cultural center.

From 2001-2007, Aidan served as Finance Director, Communications Director, and finally Chief of Staff to Deputy Senate Minority Leader Eric Schneiderman.  During that period, he helped build a lean, effective political operation for the Senate Minority and re-brand the Democratic conference as agents of progressive change, helping to reduce the long-held Republican majority from seven seats to two.  Before joining the State Senate effort, he served as a Senior Associate at the political consulting firm Straus/Baker, and worked in various capacities on the campaigns of Al Gore for President, Ed Rendell for Governor (PA), and for the Northern Ireland Women’s Initiative, a non-profit organization that trained women across sectarian lines to run for office in Northern Ireland. 

Throughout his political career, Aidan has sustained his lifelong interest in the theatre as a producer, dedicating himself to the development and production of plays by new and emerging Irish playwrights.  His credits include Macdara Vallely’s Peacefire (Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Amnesty International Freedom Award Shortlist, currently being made into a motion picture), Donal O’Kelly’s Catalpa and Bat the Father, Rabbit the Son (Chicago); and Ronan Noone’s The Lepers of Baile Baiste and The Blowin of Baile Gall (Irish Arts Center). 

Prior to his involvement in politics, Aidan enjoyed a successful period as an actor, starring in the national tour of the hit musical Forever Plaid, and in regional productions of My Fair Lady, Assassins, and a staged reading of War in Paramus, with Blythe Danner, directed by Austin Pendleton.  On film, he played Young Frank McCourt in a documentary on the Pulitzer winning author, broadcast on London Weekend Television (U.K.), and the Ovation network (U.S.)   An avid singer and musician, Aidan was a member of the Juilliard Chorus from 2001-2007, and performed with them for such engagements as Jason Robert Brown in Concert (Jazz at Lincoln Center) Kristen Chenoweth Live at the Met (Metropolitan Opera), and numerous concerts at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops and the Juilliard Orchestra, led by such conductors as Anne Manson, Jah Jah Ling, Skitch Henderson, Marvin Hamlisch, and Rob Fisher.

A native of Newington, CT, Aidan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Theatre with honors from Providence College.  He is the son of Michael Connolly, a native of Milltown, Co. Galway, Ireland, and Mary Connolly, a native of Dublin.  He is a member of Actors Equity Association, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Arts Education.

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