Background
Rock was born in Dublin and grew up in the Ballymun and Glasnevin areas, where he was raised by his mother and grandparents.
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 Saint Aidan"s Columbia Broadcasting System in Ballymun.
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 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 2011 he was a campaign organizer for John Paul for the Dail, which successfully sought to elect John Paul Phelan to the Dáil Éireann for Carlow-Kilkenny, where he topped the poll. Rock has also worked as a secretarial assistant for Catherine Noone, a Senator in the Seanad Eireann on the Industrial and Commercial Panel.
After unsuccessfully contesting the Ballymun LEA in the 2009 election, Rock once more ran for the seat in the 2014 local election.
During the 2014 election, Rock made a "Number Expense Pledge" where he would not take the 36,000 euro allowance given to councillors. 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 Territorial Decoration 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.
He was elected to the Dáil at the 2016 general election.
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. In doing so he increased Fine Gael"s share of the second-preference vote by 462%.
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 also beat party colleague Bill Tormey, a former Independent, Fine Gael, and Labour candidate for the Dail.