Michael Connolly (マイケル・コノリー Maikeru Konorī) was the leader of the Advanced Irish Republican Army, a splinter group of the Provisional IRA.

Connolly was an elderly Irish man with a skinny build, pale skin, short, spiky, light-colored hair, and a circle beard with a soul patch. He usually wore dark-colored suits and pants with patterned dress shirts underneath. He carried two pistols for weapons, though he only wielded them one at a time.

An ardent Irish nationalist, Connolly was willing to overlook the deaths of his subordinates as sacrifices in the end goal of creating a united Ireland. He was prone to anger when questioned about his plans and motives.

Though he was the leader of the Advanced IRA, it is unknown if Connolly was the founder of the faction. He was married to a fellow Irish woman, Chloe Reddington, who helped him arrange deals for arms trafficking.

The Provisional IRA had originally received firearms from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, but after Gaddafi had refrained from shipping further weapons via a North African route, they decided to procure smuggled weapons from other sources. Unable to obtain firearms in Europe, the Advanced IRA sought out guns from arms traffickers in the United States. Additionally, Connolly in particular wanted to buy Stinger missiles so that he could carry out a terrorist attack against the British government. Accordingly, he ordered his second-in-command, Cillian McGrath, to go to the U.S. and complete the weapon smuggling deal. The deal went awry due to the ATF disrupting the meeting, and though the missiles were successfully smuggled back to the British Isles, Cillian's comrade Ian was killed during the firefight.

Some day later at his hideout, Michael was speaking with two subordinates about their plans when Cillian showed up to talk with him. Michael commended him for making the package arrive safely, though he noticed Cillian's sad expression. Hearing his subordinate mention that Ian died, he offered his condolences and informed Cillian that the young men told him an American agent was coming after the Stinger. Cillian asked if the agent is ATF, though Michael admitted he was unsure, adding that the agent could also either be with the FBI or CIA. Not too worried, Michael stated they would only have to deal with a few of them at most and mainly have to watch for the London police. To Michael's confusion, Cillian asked him for how long he would keep sending young men to their deaths.

Angered at the question, the Advanced IRA leader leaned over his shoulder and in turn claimed he could not believe a brave man like Cillian actually asked him that. Yelling at him, he shouted that they would never stop fighting no matter how much blood was spilled or how many corpses they laid down until they saw the day of a united Ireland. Calming down, Michael assured Cillian he understood his sadness about Ian, proclaiming that Ian's death and the deaths of their brothers and sisters could not be in vain. Shouting that they would drive the "Black and Tans" out of Ireland, he quieted down again and advised Cillian to go home and let his dog Quinn comfort him, reminding him that he was probably tired after having just returned from the United States. With that, Cillian left and did not say a word.

A day later, Michael received a phone call from his second-in-command, and they agreed to plan an ambush against Eda and her London Met associates. The informant whom Eda had previously interrogated told her that he learned his information from Chester Shankly in Watford. However, Shankly agreed to lure them out to the back of the bar he was frequenting so that Cillian and his men would ambush them with heavy gunfire. The mission failed since the CIA agent and two police officers survived. Afterward, Michael finished a phone call with an associate and asked them to bring in their cargo as planned since its presence was confirmed. Walking into the office, Cillian complained that his mission was essentially acting as a decoy to lure out the police. Ignoring the complaint, Michael said he was disappointed that Cillian could not kill the agents, especially the American among them. Apologizing for it, Cillian reasoned that she was tougher than expected, but Michael responded it does not matter since they needed to plan their next move.

Having secured the Stinger missiles, Michael decided to have their target be a British air force base. On the day of the attack, he and some of his men waited in the countryside for a couple of cars to pick them up. As the van arrived, Michael recommended that they leave but noticed Cillian's face and wondered if he was happy. Smiling, the second-in-command confirmed and added that he was even excited. A few kilometers south of the air base, Michael and his fighters staked out in a house whose window faced north where the air base was. One of his elderly associates began loading the missile launcher, asking the Advanced IRA leader if they only had two missiles and needed to only use one. Looking out the window, Michael responded that they would need to exfiltrate the area as soon as possible after they shot down one plane. He assessed that the air base would not let a second plane be easily destroyed after one was shot down, so they had to leave quickly or else be found and captured.

Michael ordered the man to get into position and noticed Cillian loading his firearms. Noting that he was heavily armed, the leader admitted he was proud of Cillian, saying he was a different man from his depressed self when he returned from the United States. Practicing his aim, Cillian smirkingly asked if he really believed he changed. When Eda's police van arrived near the house, Michael's associate pointed out that the van that passed by was probably the police because the car passed the house twice at low speed, adding that the passengers looked familiar. He professed his guess could be wrong, to which Michael remarked that such optimism would be fatal. Immediately, Michael ordered everyone to prepare for battling the cops. Skeptical, his elderly associate asked if they would use the Stinger missile, to which the Advanced IRA leader replied that they were only up against cars and people and therefore should not waste their hard-earned equipment. Thinking to himself, Michael recalled that Morton, their diversion, was captured. Knowing that he was not informed of the location of their hideout, he wondered if there was an insider among them given the police's unusually fast and successful search.

He silently looked at the preoccupied Cillian due to the possibility he was the leak, which was indeed the case since the latter was resentful about his leader willing to sacrifice his comrades' lives again and again. At that point, when Jerry Smith knocked on the front door, the Advanced IRA extremists adamantly opened fire on the officers. Going to the back, Eda sneaked into the back door and turned around the staircase corner when she and Cillian saw each other. The latter shot at her, forcing her to take cover as he urged Michael to escape through the window. When Eda shot back, Cillian laid on his stomach as Michael jumped out the window and onto the ground, being spotted by the two officers as he began fleeing. Jerry adamantly ordered Emily to pursue him despite her hesitancy so that the extremist leader did not escape. Beginning to tail him, both Emily and Michael exchanged gunfire with one another, with the former yelling that she would not let him escape.

He exchanged more gunfire with her as she took cover behind a tree. Soon, he ran out of ammunition after insulting her as a "Black and Tan girl." Before he could reload, Emily shot him once in the chest, knocking him down. Glaring at Michael, she told him that two years ago, one of his bombings killed two of her best friends from the police academy. Not regretful, Michael proclaimed that he would send her to hell and lifted his pistol. Acting fast, he pulled the trigger and only managed to graze Emily's left cheek, whereas she simultaneously shot him once in the head, killing him. In the end, the missiles were not used since Michael's associate discovered one of them was a dud during the firefight, with the attack having already been anticipated and foiled. With the deaths of all Advanced IRA members in the neighborhood attack, the Irish republican faction effectively ceased to exist.

After the police operation, no one outside of those involved knew about the deaths of Michael Connolly and Cillian McGrath. Although the Advanced IRA was effectively no more, their gunrunning allies in the United States, particularly the Fenians, were still at large. Chloe Reddington, Michael's wife, did not learn about her husband's murder. Exploiting this fact, the CIA had Eda pose as Chloe in order to speak with an intermediary who would give her the details about the next arms smuggling deal which was to take place in the United States. When she met the female intermediary, Eda explained Michael's absence by conveying a lie that he could not move freely and had to keep a low profile due to a recent major raid. Meanwhile, the British police had someone pose as Connolly's messenger to Chloe so that she would avoid contact with the intermediary.