Francis Barry

Francis Barry

Office of the Mayor, Director of Public Affairs

Age: 35

Place of Birth: Suffern, NY

Where you live: Manhattan

First Job: Coat check at a restaurant

What it taught me: It’s possible to sit around doing very little and still get paid for it. (For the record, that is not why I pursued a career in government.)

Status: Single

Three things people would be surprised to know about me:

1. I own two different kinds of banjos (but can play neither).

2. I have a wiffle curve ball that is nearly unhittable (and entirely uncontrollable).

3. I will admit to liking ‘Jersey Shore’

Best advice you could give someone starting out: I’m not sure I can improve on the Mayor’s advice: find a job you love, get in early, stay late, work hard – and don’t screw it up.

Francis Barry, whose grandparents came to New York from Leitrim and Mayo in 1907, was born on Bloomsday, 1975. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Barry joined the Marist Volunteer Program and spent two years teaching English at St Agnes Boys High School on the Upper West Side.

In 2002 he joined Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, where he now serves as the Mayor’s chief speechwriter and Director of Public Affairs. He is also the author of a 2009 book on the history of political reform in New York, The Scandal of Reform.