Katharine Bulbulia is a former politician from County Waterford in Ireland.
16 Facts About Katharine Bulbulia
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Katharine Bulbulia was a Fine Gael senator from 1981 to 1989, and subsequently joined the Progressive Democrats, serving from 1997 to 2006 as a senior aide to the party's leader.
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Katharine Bulbulia is a former director of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, a government-sponsored body planning and co-ordinating body established to formulate and implement a strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy in Ireland.
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Katharine Bulbulia was a member of the AWEPA Governing Council.
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Katharine Bulbulia subsequently graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Higher Diploma in Education, before working as a teacher.
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Katharine Bulbulia is married to Abdul Bulbulia, a general practitioner in Waterford.
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Katharine Bulbulia stood as a Fine Gael candidate for Tramore in the 1979 local elections, where she topped the poll and became the first woman ever elected to Waterford County Council.
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Katharine Bulbulia was later elected as well to Waterford City Council, and served from 1979 as a member of the South-Eastern Health Board.
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Katharine Bulbulia then stood unsuccessfully as a Fine Gael candidate for the Waterford constituency at three general elections: 1981, November 1982, and 1989.
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Martin Cullen the Progressive Democrats TD for Waterford, defected to Fianna Fail after the a dispute over candidate selection for the 1994 European Parliament election, and Katharine Bulbulia then joined the PDs.
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Katharine Bulbulia stood as the PD candidate in Waterford at the 1997 general election, but again failed to win a seat.
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Katharine Bulbulia was appointed as programme manager to the Tanaiste, PD leader Mary Harney, a post she held for nine years until Harney was replaced as leader in September 2006 by Michael McDowell.
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Katharine Bulbulia played an important role in communicating with other members of the PD parliamentary party about the decisions taken at Government level.
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Katharine Bulbulia had previously been appointed by Brian Cowen as a member of the Medical Council of Ireland, where he initiated moves which led in 2001 to a softening of the Council's guidelines on abortion.
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Katharine Bulbulia's appointment was criticised by the anti-abortion Family and Life group, who condemned Bulbulia for having opposed the 1983 Anti-abortion amendment to the Constitution of Ireland.
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In 2005, CURA had stopped distributing the Agency's Positive Options leaflet after Bishops objected to its inclusion of information on abortion, in breach of its contract with the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, and in May 2007 Katharine Bulbulia said that it was up to CURA to look at the agency's terms and conditions to see if they could abide by them.