TAOISEACH Enda Kenny paid a visit to the Northside last week to galvanise party faithful at the opening of a constituency office for local candidate Cllr Noel Rock last week.
Fine Gael hasn’t had a seat in Dublin North West since former TD, Mary Flaherty, lost out to Fianna Fail’s Pat Carey back in 1997. Since then Brendan Brady, Dr Bill Tormey and Gerry Breen have all tried and failed to win back the seat and Kenny gave Cllr Rock a rousing endorsement to finally do the job in 2016 at the constituency office opening ceremony.
However, Cllr Rock will have his work cut out for him in the three-seat constituency. Roisin Shortall (SD) and Dessie Ellis (SF) will be expected to retain their positions and there could be a real dog-fight for the third seat.
Cllr Rock, along with Cllr Paul McAuliffe (FF), will be snapping at the heels of sitting Labour TD, John Lyons (Lab), while Sinn Fein’s Cllr Cathleen Carney Boud will be hoping transfers from Ellis will boost her chances.
Raised by his mother and grandparents in Pinewood Crescent, Glasnevin, and Balbutcher Lane, Ballymun, Cllr Rock attended school at Our Lady of Victories on Ballymun Road and St Aidan’s before studying at DCU on Collins Avenue.
In 2006, he worked in the US Senate for Hillary Clinton. He later moved to Brussels where he took up a role as a speechwriter and press assistant, before working at a cloud computing company.
He is already familiar with the corridors of power, working as a parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone.