INDEPENDENT COUNCILLOR NIAL Ring has been elected as the new Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Ring was elected by fellow councillors this evening at the Annual Council Meeting and becomes the 349th Lord Mayor of the city.

The Dublin north inner city councillor takes over the role from Sinn Féin’s Micheál Mac Donncha.

Ring’s election to the role had been all but guaranteed after he was nominated by fellow Independent and inner city councillor Christy Burke.

This is due to a formal pact between Sinn Féin, Labour and an Independent grouping of rotating the mayorship.

Ring was first elected as a councillor for the Inner City North area in the 2009 local elections and was reelected in 2014.

A businessman and prominent voice in the north inner city, he has been outspoken on a number of issues affecting his electoral area in recent years, including the spate of murders that have occurred as a result of the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin councillor for Ballymun Cathleen Carney Boud was elected as Deputy Lord Mayor.