Today I took a long walk through out centre of my home city - Lodz. It was kind of test drive of my new camera - Samsung DX 10, but I will describe my impressions in next entry. I have already mentioned couple of times, that we have Irish pubs in Poland, and they are quite popular, even if they are not truly Irish 
We have couple of them in Lodz, at least 3. Walking through the city centre I came up against funny place. One building (an old communist era public eating-house (used to be named Balaton - after lake in Hungary), but now there is a few shops and upstairs we have two Irish pubs: Dublin and Belfast - they have never been so close to each other. It is only 1 minute to walk from Dublin to Belfast and back again.
belfast belfast bar communist dublin dx 10 impressions Irish in Poland irish pubs Lodz new camera poland pubs dublin samsung
And we have an Irish blogger who is living in Poland and who is describing his own experiences and remarks on Poland, Poles and our culture. It is really interesting.
Check this out: www.lostinpoland.blogspot.com
blogger Irish in Poland irish blogger poland Uncategorized
Today in Poland we have 25th anniversary of martial law established by communistic regime. During the first night of martial law – December the 13th 1981, all Polish dissidents were sent to detention camps. Communistic army and police forces suppress democratic demonstrations and riots in the streets, factories and mines. There was dozen or so casualties among civilian protesters.
During the martial law cinemas, theaters were closed, walking on a street in a bigger group could be taken as a illegal gathering or demonstration, phone calls were officially bugged, there was a curfew after dark and Poland suffered the beginning of the biggest economical crisis.
What does Ireland have to do with that part of contemporary Polish history? There is one little thing - a U2 song “New years day” (from the album Under the blood red sky). That song is dedicated to Lech Walensa - the most known Polish dissident (and the first elected president of independent Poland) who was imprisoned at the beginning of the martial law – and to the Solidarity movement.
U2 is very popular in Poland, and every year on the martial law anniversary, “New years day” is played very often during those days.
For a last couple of years, in Poland we have been watching appearance of beer brands inspired by Irish stouts and titled after Irish cities. Thus some of the smaller breweries produce beer called Cork (made by Lodz brewery), Dublin and Belfast. They are not like real stout, in fact they have nothing similar to Guinness, Beamish or Murphy’s Stout. They are dark beers but they are much more like strong lagers.
They taste quite good but they taste heavy and for sure they are not so refreshing like good Polish lager or pint of Guinness.
Anyway, it is a very good example of Irish influences in Poland and how magical is Ireland in many Polish minds. As I wrote long time ago (2nd post on that blog), Ireland have been very popular and famous in Poland due to its music, legends and beer of course.
Last week I spent working in a position of TV Fixer for producers of one of the programs for RTE. It was nice time with the crew. I was in charge of booking hotels, hiring vintage car, translating and guiding. I got some new experiences and working for Irish media became quite possible opportunity to earn money in a interesting way.
Those guys I was working for, got the impression that (both unfortunately or luckily) Poland is like Ireland 20 years ago. It is for sure years ago, the question is how many years– twenty, fifteen, ten or maybe less?
It is nice that every week I am getting some e-mails from Irish media with a questions about Poland and Polish community in Ireland.
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