Her family name is of Czech origin. Her paternal grandfather, Karel Bacik, a Czech factory owner, moved to Ireland with his young family when the Communists began to take over private businesses. He eventually settled in Waterford and in 1947 was involved in the establishment of Waterford Crystal. Her mother's side of the family are Murphy's from County Clare. Bacik lives with partner Alan and two daughters in the Portobello area of Dublin. Reading the Book The Women's Room by Marilyn French, at 17, greatly influenced her politics and around the same time, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell was also very influential, conveying a powerful anti-capitalist message. She was educated at Alexandra College, a fee-paying, girls' school in Miltown, Dublin.
University politics
Her term as president of Trinity College Dublin Students' Union ended prematurely when she resigned in 1990, after it was discovered that she had broken a mandate received from the Union membership, regarding voting for candidates at a Union of Students in Ireland conference. Despite 13 TCD representatives being mandated to vote for one candidate, Martin Whelan, a former TCD SU president, it transpired that candidate received only 12 votes, Bacik's vote instead being given to the feminist former UCD SU officer, Karen Quinlivan. A controversy erupted in the Students' Union and a subsequent internal investigation led to Bacik's resignation. She was taken to court by the anti-abortion group, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, for providing information on abortion. SPUC were successful in the court case, albeit that success came in the 1990s, long after Bacik had graduated from Trinity College.
Politics and campaigns
Bacik's policies may be described as liberal and social democratic and she has been described as "Labour's queen of political correctness". Her career as a national politician commenced when she stood as a candidate for the Labour Party at the 2004 election to the European Parliament in the Dublin constituency. She ran with sitting MEPProinsias De Rossa, who was also the party president, on the same ticket. She polled 40,707 first preference votes but was not elected. She did not stand as a candidate for the Labour Party at the 2007 general election. However, she contested the Seanad Éireann elections for the third time in the University of Dublin constituency, as an Independent candidate and was elected a Senator on the eighth count, over the quota but behind rival Independent candidates Shane Ross and David Norris, who had already been elected. She previously contested that same election and constituency in 1997 and 2002 as an Independent candidate, but had been unsuccessful. In September 2006, Bacik was one of the 61 Irish academic signatories of a letter published in The Irish Times calling for an academic boycott of the state of Israel. In January 2009, she declared that she wants Ireland to break off diplomatic relations with Israel and in February 2009 called for a general boycott of Israeli goods. In June 2009, Bacik was the Labour Party candidate for the Dublin Centralby-election she came in third with 17% of the first preference votes. She joined the Labour Party group in the Seanad in September 2009, and became Labour Party Seanad spokesperson for both Justice and Arts, Sports and Tourism. In May 2010, she did not obtain Labour's nomination to run for the Dáil in Dublin South East. In December 2010, she was added to the ticket as the second candidate beside Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, in the Dún Laoghaire constituency for the 2011 general election. Gilmore topped the poll, with Bacik receiving 10.1% of first preference votes but she was not elected. She was re-elected to Seanad Éireann at the subsequent election, after which she became Deputy Leader of the Seanad. She supported the Minister of Foreign Affair's decision to abstain on the UN vote on Gaza even though she describes herself as pro-Palestinian.
