Why haven't you posted pictures of the Enniskillen Bombing?
Nevermind, I'll do that:
Posted on 08/16/2006 10:46:10 AM PDT by lizol
Ireland – a Polish home from home
Even in the most distant parts of Ireland, a country which opened its labour market for new EU citizens only 2 years ago, any Pole will feel at home.
Iwona Lajmen reports
The streets, shops and offices are full of Polish people passing by, opening their businesses or assisting other Poles to help them order a coffee in Polish. This is how numerous Polish immigrants have made their way into a country on the other end of the European Community.
Ireland, one of the few countries which decided to open itself to all EU communities, claims it has taken one of the best decisions ever. When the Celtic Tiger develops and its people get better off there are still too few hands to work. Especially that this island is not among the most densely populated. Out of the 4 million Irish living there now every 10th is an immigrant. According to official statistics about 150 thousand of them are Poles, mainly coming for two or five years, just to make the money to have an easier start back at home. 'I had a job and my boyfriend had one too. I worked in an Atlantic shop with underwear and earned 300 euros a month, now I make 350 a week, so that's a big difference.'
'Yes, it's hard work, but not as much as people think... I guess here's the same like in Poland... not so different, but I still miss the family.'
Like many other young and dynamic Poles in their 20s Karolina followed her boyfriend all the way to Dublin. Now, working in Mc Donald’s and living with several other people in one apartment, she looks very positively into her future:
'I didn't plan this trip... I graduated in 2004. I had some friends here, so it wasn't so bad at the beginning. I applied for a few jobs and still being in Poland had three interviews. Then I came here straight away and had a job after three days.'
It’s not a secret that most of the hands are needed at construction sites and this is where Przemek found his work just within a week after he arrived in Dublin in June this year. Having spent 2 years in the same job in Germany, whose labour market is still closed, he says, that even if he’s further away from home now he feels, in a way, nearer to Poland in Ireland.
Many Polish people intending to emigrate that far away start searching for jobs while still in Poland before they leave. That’s what Szymon did around May 2004. Now he’s changed his job twice climbing up his chosen professional ladder in administration:
Far away from home, having a job, good money, and the craic, (or having fun in Irish) - this is what Marzena and Wojtek do. Running their own graphic company they have come up with the idea of publishing a free guide to Polish speaking places in Dublin, which they distribute at the airport and in the streets. Apart from that, they also edit an ad magazine Anons.ie, which helps those who are making their first steps in Ireland to find their way. Since still not all Polish emigrants speak English, it’s one of the first things they grab to survive, says marrzena Smousz.
'Today we have the second issue. It's every Monday in shops and we really think Poles need it. Yesterday we received a postcard from a guy in Cork who wrote down "Thanks Anons.ie!! I found a job!!"
Before EU enlargement hardly any of the Irish heard anything about Poland. Now the two nations work together and many a times live next door, getting to know each other better and showing a lot of understanding for - all together - similar traditions, religion and history. Even this elderly woman who coincidently stopped by in the street has an opinion about a country at the other end of the EU:
'I think they are very nice. And I listened to Radio4, which is an English radio station, the other day. They were saying that Polish work very hard, they are well respected for whatever work they do -they do it very well. And they are well respected in England and here.'
10 years ago it would have been unprecedented in Ireland, now it’s happening. A fully homogeneous Irish society has opened themselves for foreigners and it seems that Poles have found a common ground and language.
Hah! Another common Irish and Polish trait--wild ambition!!!
Smaczny!
It used to be probably Polish surname "Okonski" (from "okon", Polish for a fish called "perch" or "bass").
Alvin O'Konski was a conservative Republican US representative from Wisconsin who ran unsuccessfully for Joseph R. McCarthy's Senate seat following Tail Gunner Joe's death in 1957. I had always wondered if O'Konski was an Irish or Polish name, but a former employee of his told me that the name is Polish.
maybe mrs mik will serve some for dinner?
Anything wrong with the Irish Catholic Church?
Given his voting record in the house, O'Konski would have been a far better Senator than William Proxmire, the Democrat who eventually won the seat.
Cromwell's massacres were genocidal in fact (he slaughtered thousands of people simply because they were Catholic, or were Anglicans loyal to the Stuart dynasty, without regard for age or sex), method (burning hundreds of his victims alive) and in intent (he wanted to eliminate all non-Parliamentarians from the areas of Ireland he considered strategic).
The quote, however, is completely unsubstantiated by any contemporary record, either Parliamentarian or Royalist.
As is the other famous quote about driving the Irish to "Connaught or Hell."
I think the important indicator of how vile a person Cromwell was is the detruction of Wexford - his troops destroyed a town that would have been of great value for his supply lines in his Irish campaign. It was apparently more important to him to murder Irish Catholic civilians in Wexford and raze an entire town rather than to secure his own supply lines for the sieges of Waterford, Duncannon, Clonmel and Limerick.
He lost precious time, strategic advantage and hundreds of soldiers to disease and exposure just to slake his bloodlust.
If you approve of Sinn Fein/IRA's attitude and behavior toward Thatcher, you absolutely do.
It's Catholics like you that I can do without.
If you support a terrorist organization like Sinn Fein/IRA, then you can do without all Catholics, since no actual Catholic would support such a vicious terrorist organization. IRA enablers are a strictly CINO group.
Why haven't you posted pictures of the Enniskillen Bombing?
Nevermind, I'll do that:
Not quite the same thing.
There were three groups involved on Bloody Sunday: civil rights protestors, British soldiers and IRA provocateurs.
The IRA provocateurs used innocent civil rights protestors as human shields to attack British soldiers and the British soldiers responded with an unforgivably incompetent response that killed innocent people and allowed terrorists to escape.
The Polish Massacre on the Coast was composed of just two groups: Communist soldiers and peaceful protestors. There were no homegrown Polish terrorists present.
Bingo! Why do you think Martin McGuinness wouldn't testify to where he was on Bloody Sunday?
About half of my ancestors came from Ireland. I am so glad that Ireland's economy has rocketed to the top of the EU, with low taxes and free enterprise. It makes sense that Poles would do well in Ireland. Poles share many of the same values as the Irish.
Slawno was an important center for the anti-Hitler Confessing Church movement, sponsoring a seminary solely for training ministers who refused to study at Nazi-controlled evangelical seminaries.
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