Learn the language of Ireland, you Poles, speak Gaelic!! :-p

And what would the Polish people find in Poland if (or when) they return from Britain/Ireland. The Poles did not come to Ireland for holiday!!!

First of all I want to congratulate You for this blog. Design, layout and everything else encourages you to take a look at it and forces you to stay a bit longer Keep up the good work!

I’ve been reading that article and posts on that for nearly an hour now. It’s good to have straight, bright answers on both sides. Some are more intelligent and open-minded, some … on the contrary.

As for the idea of introducing Polish as the 3rd offical language - IMO, I don’t know how stupid you have to be to even think of that! I won’t be explaining much further, because there’s just no point in doing that. That’s a shame idea, and no Irish should consider that kind of “news” as truly intended by all the Poles in Ireland

In my post I’d like to ask a different question. One to Krystian, and one to Rodger.

Krystian - don’t You think that the ghetto ideas is not the only reason why Polish don’t integrate so easily? You know yourself that polish beer, friends and shopping is just one side of the story. The secound would be - it’s sad to write about that (and those are just mine observations)… but - many Irish (of course not all!) don’t want to have anything to do with foreigners, except work. I mean, their groups are closed to any non-national friends.

Rodger - You wrote: “I am just tired of listening to a foreign language every time I shop, commute, socialise”.

That is really sad. Hence Im in Ireland You require from me to speak only English to my friends, in shops, whatever? It’s not so simple as You would think it is! I have to tell You that because of that kind of attitude and way of thinking I’ve stopped going out, entirely.

Would You kindly try to imagine that kind of situation - You’re going out with Your friend (Irish) while in Poland, and try to speak polish (even if You know it very well)? No, You’ll stay onto English, and nobody would give a damn thing about it!

Some months ago my girlfriend went for a beer with her friend. They have been speaking polish, not too loud, just between themselves, the pub was O’Loughlins. They went outside for a ciggy, and then some drunk irish lad approached them and started to ask them: “What kind of fxxx language is that? Why don’t You speak English? I don’t understand anything!”. She responded that it was none of his business. So he said: “fxxx off u fxxx foreigners, Im changing a pub, what happened to Ireland?”. Poor lad.

So Rodger would You kindly explain to me that kind of behaviour? We work here, pay taxes, bills, and help to grow Your businesses, but we can’t even use our native language while socialising, because somebody can approach use and hit us with the face or do stupid remarks? Unfortunately more and more people start to think in that way.

I agree with John - “When in Rome…”, but that doesn’t mean that I have to loose my identity, and to be afraid of using my native language while, for instance - doing shopping.

Best regards to all, and Krystian - once again let me say great work You did!

What makes me feel Irish is my learned belief to discriminate ONLY between good and bad people, to be subjective.
I refuse to acknowledge the differences between us, and will fight my case with anbody who insists on the difference.

Is mise le meas

Edd

and you are right, and I am afraid in some points they are damaged already due to the almost completely cut of of Polish community. Many of us are still in Poland. They are in Ireland only 8 h/day. Then they do shopping in Polish shops, drink Polish beer at home and watching Polish tele. That is the big problem and integration issue.

My Irish friend, my house mate got into trouble with two other Poles that used to share the house with us and finally he kicked them out. He joked “we have a no Polish zone now, and you are almost Irish”. It was a joke, but from the other side - most of my friends in Carlow are Irish or Spanish, and as you said I can speak Irish a little.

apart of that… ta me Pollanach

Eddie Staunton (Heritage studies student)

First of all, to The Mighty Quinn, the land of your ancestors was down the toilet and that’s why your ancestors left it, and it remained down the toilet until 15 years ago. I don’t know what kind of romanticised crap you were fed by your ancestors, but no doubt all our problems were due to the British and not of our own making.

To all those Irish who seem to think we are doing Poland a favour, WAKE UP!
Our population is too small to keep you in the wealth we have become accustomed to. Before the Polish came, Mary Harney, then Minister for trade and employment, travelled the world trying to persuade Irish emigrants to come home with very limited success. She also tried to encourage other nationalities to come here. When Poland and other eastern countries joined the EU in 2004, most EU countries did not give them work permits. Ireland did, not out of charity, but because we needed them so badly. Other EU countries would have done the same if they had rapidly growing economies like our own.

And to the Polish, with the exception of Mackozer, Peter/Piotr and similar open mineded Poles, don’t you realise you are insulting Irish people by building ghettos and thereby creating bad feeling.

Polish friends of mine who have been here for three years now, always comment on how friendly Irish people were when they first came here and how that friendliness is mostly gone now. But, they don’t blame the Irish, they blame Polish for not showing the same friendliness in return. I remember 2004 and how positive most Irish were about the arriving Poles. We genuinely beleved we shared a lot in common.
I can count myself as one of those Irish who have become disillusioned with most Polish people. My best friend has a lot of house parties which would be 60% Polish and 40% Irish and other nationalities. It is frustrating for her that Polish at these parties have little or no interest in talking to any other nationality. Although nearly all speak good English, they do not seem to have the same desire as other nationalities to speak it and improve it. I’m not sure why this is. So often I try to talk to someone and before I know it others join us and the language is switched to Polish. Then, I feel like an unwanted foreigner in my own country.

But that is not the worst of it. She is often critisized by her Polish friends for being to friendly with Irish people. Apparently, we may be wealthier than Polish people generally, but we are seen as having an inferior culture. Of course this is rubbish, and when I am oftened asked if there are any famous Irish people apart from U2, and I reply with many names, I always get the same reponse, “I thought there were British” which of course is the worst insult imaginable.

My point with all of this is that we all need to take a good look at ourselves.

Ireland needs Polish. Ireland was not a better place 20 years ago. And the Polish need to learn “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”

There are many positive things we can learn from each other. On my many visits to Poland I have seen ways of doing things that could improve Ireland greatly. I have also learned a lot from Polish friends and I know they have learned from me.

So why can’t we all oen our minds and be nice to each other.