Fianna Fail may have been well beaten at the previous year's local elections, but the party's councillors on Dublin city council knew that, with some work, and a little luck, they might just snatch the mayorship away from the majority group led by Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens.

Jackson, a likeable and longtime independent councillor, was persuaded to allow his name to go forward. He was eventually beaten by a single vote, but a row in Fine Gael convinced Fianna Fail that their attempted little coup was worth another try this year. Fine Gael councillor Niamh Cosgrave had missed the mayoral vote in 2005. A party colleague later made a complaint about her attendance and voting records to Fine Gael headquarters. The Donaghmede councillor, who spends some of her time in France, subsequently left the party.

Getting Cosgrave to support Jackson was the central plank of the Fianna Fail-led campaign over the final few weeks. Serious negotiations were also held with Wendy Hederman, but the PD councillor, who backed the Fine Gael-led alliance in previous years, was not inclined to change their voting record.

Jackson was guaranteed the support of Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and a number of other independents. He needed a single extra vote to split the 52-member council evenly between the two groupings. Cosgrave duly obliged. Turning the tables on her former colleagues, she turned up for the vote and cast her ballot for Jackson. The result between Jackson and Labour's Paddy Burke was split 26-26. Their two names went into the hat, and 40-year-old Vincent 'Ballyfermot' Jackson was duly elected as the 337th lord mayor of Dublin.

Jackson's family are true Dubliners.

His parents hail from the inner-city Liberties area. With the development of new housing estates on the outskirts of the capital in the early 1950s, they moved to Ballyfermot.

"My grandmother didn't want my mother to move.

She called it 'Ballyfaraway', " Jackson recalls.

The new west-Dublin suburb, however, quickly became home for Vincent Jackson and his nine siblings. He is the second youngest with a 23-year gap between the youngest and eldest in the family. His father worked in the building industry and only retired in 2002 aged 73. He was at home last Monday evening when news came through that his politician son had been elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. "I told nobody. My wife only found out on Saturday that I had a chance, " Vincent Jackson admits.

Having been beaten by a single vote in 2005, Jackson didn't want his family to be disappointed again. He also wasn't convinced the deal could be pulled off.

He spent Monday at a work 'away-day' in Glendalough and left his mobile phone in the office. When he checked his phone later in the day, the negative message he had been expecting had not arrived. Later that evening, his name was pulled from the hat. The election in Dublin City Hall sparked frantic calls to various family members, many of whom later arrived at the Mansion House for a post-election celebratory party.

The messages of congratulations came fast and furious. On Wednesday evening, the new lord mayor was forced to buy a new telephone answering machine. "The old one could only take 20 messages and it was totally full. The new machine can handle 100 messages, " he says.

Like many other members of his immediate family, Jackson initially earned his living from the building trade. He is a qualified carpenter.

However, in the mid-1990s he decided it was time for a change of direction and enrolled for a twoyear diploma in community development at St Patrick's College in Maynooth. He almost walked out after the first month. "I wasn't used to a regime of lectures and going to the library, " he recalls.

He is now employed as the manager of the Clondalkin Youth Service. He talks passionately about the need to provide services and opportunities for young people to prevent them turning to drink and drugs and engaging in antisocial behaviour. "It's the best money the state can spend. I'm not condoning bad behaviour, but some young people are dealt a bad hand in life. It's great to see them turned around, " he says.

Jackson is involved in a variety of community and youth-related initiatives. For example, last week a group of teenagers from Ballyfermot travelled to a holiday home in Gorey, Co Wexford. Jackson led the fundraising effort, which went on for nine years, to buy the property.

His first official function at the Mansion House takes place next Wednesday evening, when 15 young people from Ballyfermot will be hosted at the lord mayor's residence before they set off for South America to work with deprived communities in Brazil. For the last six months, they have been learning Portuguese and have raised 10,000 to help the people they will meet.

"Vincent works hard for his community, " says Sinn Fein's Tony Smithers, another Ballyfermot councillor. "What you see is what you get. He's professional and articulate even if he can be somewhat monotone when he's speaking, " another councillor says. "He's a populist politician and I suspect he's not substantial enough to make the job high profile, " says another councillor, who actually voted for Jackson. That, however, would seem to be a minority view.

Jackson was first elected to Dublin City Council in 1991, and has had four unsuccessful attempts at winning a Dail seat. Fianna Fail is known to have examined the possibility of attracting him onto the party ticket in Dublin South Central, which takes in his Ballyfermot base. It's an area where the party currently has no local council presence. The new lord mayor, however, says he's not interested in using his office to position himself for another Dail run. "I'm not interested in national politics any more. I can achieve more at local level, " he admits.

Together with his wife Veronica, Jackson is this weekend moving into his new residence, the Mansion House.

Veronica, who comes from Finglas, is a former nun and theologian. Her career is also in the youth work area. The couple were married last year and are looking forward to the next 12 months.

"It's a great opportunity for me and the community I represent, but my wife will keep my feet firmly on the ground, " says Jackson. "Looking after the elderly and young people will be the two themes. I'm mindful of what any one lord mayor can do in one year, but I won't be found wanting."

C.V.

Occupation: Dublin City councillor
Age: 40
Married: to Veronica, a former nun and youth worker
In the news: Jackson was elected as Lord Mayor of Dublin last Monday