Noel Rock

Early life and career

Rock was born in Dublin and grew up in the Ballymun and Glasnevin areas, where he was raised by his mother and grandparents. He was educated at Our Lady of Victories National Boys' School and St. Aidan's CBS in Ballymun. He graduated from Dublin City University, where he was the chair of the university's branch of Young Fine Gael. He remains an active member of Young Fine Gael.

While studying at DCU, Rock interned with then Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as a legislative intern focusing on foreign policy. He later interned in Iowa with her 2008 Presidential campaign ahead of the Iowa Caucuses. He welcomed Hillary to DCU for a speech in 2012. He has also worked as an assistant manager for the Washington-Ireland Program and as a press assistant with the European Parliament. Following his graduation from DCU he worked in communications for a startup cloud computing company.

Rock first ran for a seat on the Dublin City Council in 2009, and was the last candidate deemed to not be elected in his LEA. He was the youngest candidate to run for a seat on the Council for a major party. In doing so he increased Fine Gael's share of the second-preference vote by 462%. In 2011 he was a campaign organizer for John Paul for the Dail, which successfully sought to elect John Paul Phelan to the Dail Eireann for Carlow-Kilkenny, where he topped the poll. Rock has also worked as a Parliamentary Assistant for Catherine Noone, a Senator in the Seanad Eireann on the Industrial and Commercial Panel.

Dublin City Council

After unsuccessfully contesting the Ballymun LEA in the 2009 election, Rock once more ran for the seat in the 2014 local election. Despite a poor showing by Fine Gael nationwide, Rock won the election and took the third seat in a seven-seat constituency that represents the areas of Ballymun, Glasnevin, Drumcondra, Santry, Whitehall, Finglas, and Beaumont. He beat party colleague Gerry Breen, an incumbent councilor who served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 2010-2011 and unsuccessfully ran for the Dail in Dublin North-West during the 2011 general election and the Seanad in 2007 and 2011. He also beat party colleague Bill Tormey, a former Independent, Fine Gael, and Labour candidate for the Dail.

During the 2014 election, Rock made a "No Expense Pledge" where he would not take the 36,000 euro allowance given to councilors, and followed through on the pledge. During his tenure he fought against the purchase of a vacant storefront by PlayBlue, an adult entertainment store, on Richmond and Drumcondra Roads opposite a primary school. Rock appeared with Labour TD and former Minister Joe Costello at a rally in front of the venue to denounce the decision of the property owner to allow such an enterprise to establish itself so close to a school. The shop moved before opening. Rock has largely focused on bringing new jobs to the Ballymun area, and Dublin in general. Rock has also fought for increased investment in the region, from both the private and public sector. Rock has been active in finding solutions to Dublin's housing crisis, including opposing an anti-social housing resolution proposed by Fianna Fail councilors Daithi de Roiste and Paul McAulliffe. The resolution failed.

In 2015 he was named one of the 30 hottest young politicos in Ireland.

Dail Eireann campaign

On 7 July 2015, Fine Gael nominated Rock as their sole candidate in the Dublin North-West constituency.