Ivana Bacik

Ivana Catherine Bacik (born 25 May 1968) is an Irish Labour Party politician who has been Leader of the Labour Party since 24 March 2022 and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency since winning a by-election on 9 July 2021. Bacik previously served as Leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad from 2011 to 2021, and a Senator for the Dublin University constituency from 2007 to 2021. She previously served as Deputy leader of Seanad Éireann from 2011 to 2016. Bacik is known in particular for her abortion rights campaigning since the 1980s, and her high media profile. Personal life Bacik's paternal grandfather, Charles Bacik, was a Czech factory owner who moved to Ireland in 1946. He eventually settled in Waterford and in 1947 was involved in the establishment of Waterford Crystal. Her mother's side of the family are Murphys from County Clare. Her father was an astronomer and was employed in a number of locations. As a result, she lived in London and South Africa, before moving to Crookstown, County Cork, twenty miles west of Cork City, aged six, when he became a physics lecturer in the Cork Institute of Technology. She attended the nearby national school in Cloughduv. When Bacik was 11 years old, her family moved to the Sunday's Well area of Cork City. At the age of 14, she moved to Dublin. She won a scholarship to board at Alexandra College in Milltown, Dublin. She lives with husband Alan Saul and their two daughters in Portobello, Dublin.