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Polish in Ireland

oranje

I'm living in Holland myself but my wife is from Poland. I spend a lot of time there and, of course, lots of people have moved to Ireland or England that we know.
They are always asking me what Irish people think of Polish people. I am not exactly a reliable guide because of not living in Ireland, being married to a Pole, watching Polish tv every day and being able to speak their lingo.
What do you think the general attitude to Polish people is? Do you hear of many people dating Poles? Do they go to the pub? Or are they like a group outside of the mainstream just doing their thing? Is there any big interest now in, say, Polish films or food amongst Irish people?

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Dudess

Karl Hungus wrote:

Hmm... Polish films you say? Any recommendations?

Apparently a little animated film called Worker and Parasite is well worth watching.

Oh yeah, forgot about Polanski.

oranje

julep wrote:

it's ok. you can call black people "black", but only if you refer to white people as "white". just don't let the pc brigade catch you.

anyway, where are all these Polish women i keep hearing about?
I ahve yet to meet one in Leixlip.
baltic women, yes. czech women, yes. but still no Poleish women.
also, i haven't seen any of these stereotypical 0 blade Polish men.

Check out your local Polish mass if you want to see the local Polish women

.
I have to go to the local Polish mass here every now and again and there are always loads of young ones there. The Catholic church has a big hold over young Polish people.

Poland is a great place to visit too, especially Wroclaw and Krakow. They are both a bit like Prague but not quite as commercialized.

Laslo

I like most of the Polish people I've met. I find Polish girls a little cold emotionally. They're generally very good looking and everything but I've only met a few that I would even consider dating. I can't quite put my finger on it but most of them just seem to be lacking the warmth and craic that you'd expect in a relationship. Polish guys I find are pretty sound. They can be a bit aggro with a few drinks on them but then again so can Irish blokes. There are a few rotten apples in every bunch I suppose.

Dyr

L31mr0d wrote:

I don't care what anybody says. I love the Poles and want more of them, more of them I tells you. Why? Because my local euro spar has started up a polish section of food, because there are so many in my area, overflowing with kielbasa's of every size, length and taste (i.e. bring on the inuendo), every sausage under the moon infact (weiners, salami...etc) which have been severely lacking in Ireland for the last few years, also some great polish fruit drinks with things like peach, kiwi and coconut (great for mixers) which i've usually seen on the continent but never in Ireland.

About the Irish acceptance of Poles though, I have a Polish friend here who also happens to be black (pc? I mean he calls himself black jack), he said that he has been back and forth between Ireland and Poland for the last few years and has decided to settle now in Ireland because he has found that the Irish peoples acceptance of him being black and polish is a lot better than the polish peoples acceptance of him just being black. What that says, I dunno... maybe we are more accepting overall then we believe?

Black and Polish? you could call him kiwi

Sonnenblumen

Karl Hungus wrote:

Hmm... Polish films you say? Any recommendations?

Start with 'Man of Steel' but bewarned it is not an FX film, requires careful attention!

trance2004

Polish comedies are great,

Jak Rozpetalem II Wojne Swiatowa- How I Unleashed World War II.-is the best in my opinion.

Lord Nikon

julep wrote:

I ahve yet to meet one in Leixlip.

I work in Leixlip, in a large factory, and the place is full of Polish people, and although I don't live in Leixlip, I do know that it is full of Polish people. They are some of the nicest people you could ever meet, and the can speak english very well.

The women are very attractive, but somewhat cold and quiet, that's until you start speaking to them, and then they are deadly.

johnplayerblue

I for one hate poles, walked into one once and bit my tounge.

Strokesfan

Maybe it's a bit off topic and I know they keep to themselves but i was living in an apartment next to a lot of Polish people and I never minded the parties but I strongly suspect that it was them who stomped up and down on the roof of my car one night and left an almighty dent in it... I worked with some lovely girls though but the boys seem to like their spirits...

magpie

A lot of IT types who weren't able to score with Irish women seem to have Polish girlfriends now. Maybe the language barrier and high salary in relative terms make them seem less dull to an outsider? (:D )

InFront

They're pretty much the same as Irish people in every way, i think. Culturally, historically, religiously, socially, politically, that's why it always confuses me when you hear anti-Polish stuff here

Would be nice to see a bit more culural stuff going on here, film festivals and stuff, maybe.

EDIT: Theres one bad thing about Poland imo, and that's Polish 'pop music' music...:eek: Its just wrong

secret_squirrel

My Dunnes has a polish food section now so they must have gone mainstream

parkiecik

Karl Hungus wrote:

Hmm... Polish films you say? Any recommendations?

Just a few that come to mind. Where to find the movies? 'Laser' video store on Georges St. would be my best bet.

- Three colours (Red, White,Blue)- by Kieslowski
- The Decalogue by Kieslowski, Ok this one's rather heavy but I two worth watching are: The short film about love and The short film about killing.
- Knife in the water - Polanski (A lot can happen on a small boat)
- The Pianist - Polanski (Story of survival against all odds during war).
Chronicle of Amorous Accidents - Wajda (Warning! Will changeyou into incurable romantic for life)
- Man of Marble - Wajda (It is a "Citizen Kane"-styled story of a female film student who tries to trace the history of Birkut, a long-forgotten "hero" of the Polish Communist government.)
- Man of Iron - Wajda (A great movie about postwar Poland's history)
- Europa Europe - Holland (Good story, well told).
- Sexmission - Paradys (Life without men? Neej. Classic Polish comedy
- The Deserters - Majewski (If all wars were fought like this, everyone would be a lot happier. Another classic commedy).
- How I Unleashed World War II - Chmielewski (Best Polish wartime comedy. Ask any Pole to whistle the main theme.).
- The Devil - Zurawski
- Camera Buff - Filip Mosz
- Citizen Piszczyk - Jan Piszczyk (Not very modest to name the movie after himself, but there you go).
- The Year of the Quiet Sun - Zanussi (Hope and Love During The Times of Misery and Despair)
- The Blind Chance - Kieslowski (Although the movie was made in 1981, it had its premiere in 1987. The delay was because of state-imposed censorship due to the film's political content. Enough said).
- The Moth - Zygadlo
- Love Stories - Stuhr (Four stories of love: forbidden, yearned-for, betrayed, found.)
- The Day of the Wacko - Koterski (t is a bitter story about a middle-aged man, who hates his life and other people, including himself.)
- My Mother's Lovers - Piwowarski (Adult child, immature mother.).
- Yesterday - Piwowarski (Beatles crazy polish youths in the 60s)
- Johnnie the Aquarius - Kolski (simple people, strange story, surrealistic visuals)

Others with polish connections:
- Rosemary's Baby - Polanski
- Secret Garden - Holland
- The Ninth Gate - Polanski
- Oliver Twist - Polanski
- Washington Square - Holland
- Olivier, Olivier - Holland
- Fidelity - Zurawski (not hard thing to do given that he was married to Sophie Marceau)
- Déjà vu - Pollack (Polish comedy actor Jerzy Stuhr in leading role)
- GoldenEye - remember the blonde in Bond movie that's Isabela Scorupco. She also starred in Vertical Limit and The reign of fire.
- The Shindler's list - Set in Poland during WWII. Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski
I must mention that Kaminski was also responsible for Jerry Maguire, Jurrasic Park, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, AI, Minority Report, Catch Me if You Can, War of The Worlds, The terminal and Munich
The other famous graduate from Lodz School of Film - Andrzej Bartkowiak was the director of photography in Prizzi's Honour, Speed, Falling Down, The devil's advocate, Dante's Peak, Lethal Weapon 4, Thirteen Days.

Dudess

Strokesfan wrote:

but the boys seem to like their spirits...

My male Polish flatmate would quite happily admit that does apply to him and his compatriots. And man, does he like to party too.

parkiecik

EDIT: Theres one bad thing about Poland imo, and that's Polish 'pop music' music...:eek: Its just wrong[/QUOTE]

AMEN to that. As a Pole I hoped this stay as our national shameful secret, but there you go. Now everybody knows polish pop sucks:D. Thanks God we can at least impress Japanese with Chopin.

mloc

polish people, indeed other eastern europeans, seem to be very like irish people. I've never had a problem with any of them, in terms of immigrants into ireland, the polish are probably amongst the most pleasant. Serbian/Croatian people are also great fun, one of my good friends is serbo-croatian and although he has lived here a good few years now, has attitutes similar to most irish people.

Ronan|Raven

Avalon is very good and is polish with eng subs.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267287/

Oh yea back on the original question, I find the polish and most other people who choose to work live here nowadays grand. There are some dodgy types but no worse than what one gets in all walks of life.

Sarky

More Polish people results in more potential contacts for getting your hands on a bottle of really good vodka. I fail to see how this situation could be a bad thing.

super_furry

It's strange but I know a good few lads going out with Polish girls but no Irish girls going out with Polish lads. Polish people seem cool to me though, I've been at a few of their parties and BBQ's and they all seem very friendly and similar in outlook and attitude to Irish people.

oranje

magpie wrote:

A lot of IT types who weren't able to score with Irish women seem to have Polish girlfriends now. Maybe the language barrier and high salary in relative terms make them seem less dull to an outsider? (:D )

I don't think that just goes for Polish girls. I have seen it time and again that Irish guys can get stunners abroad but the same guys get nowhere in Ireland.

I think that this has a lot to with the fact that:
i) There are relatively few good looking girls in Ireland so the ones that are good looking tend to have very high standards.
ii) Polish/German/Scandinavian/Dutch.... women tend to be more serious than Irish women. On that score a lot of the IT types may be able to outscore their less 'dull' brethern.
iii) A lot of these IT types are willing to make the effort to learn a bit about the culture and the lingo. It always impresses foreign women when you have a 'cupla focail' of their language.

I would make the distinction between 'scoring' in Ireland and being able to get a girlfriend. The 'art' of seduction in Ireland is the very impressionist exercise of getting hammered, landing at the nearest pub/discotheque and seeing what you end up with. Rather like shooting fish in a barrel. Most people, even IT guys, can manage this.

toomevara

Whats the deal with the quasi comical evil twins currently running Poland? Are they for real? All sounds a bit Austin Powers. Just how corrupt is Poland politically (have heard its a bit byzantine to put it mildly)? Where do all our polish correspondants stand on the proposed re-introduction of the death penalty in Poland...and whats the best place to live/work in Poland...thinking of going there to teach english....

Tha Gopher

Beruthiel wrote:

If you've been on boards a while, then perhaps you've noticed quite a few bigoted threads on this subject?

.

Not really. Though I recall quite a few threads where people asking genuine questions such as how come ROI residents with N.I reg cars are forced to get a southern reg whilst Poles can seemingly drive around with their own whilst living here, or who dared to ask why its so hard to get a job in a supermarket or takeaway if you are young, Irish and male were branded as racists for even asking by certain boards posters of limited intelligence. But the oul racism has actually been fairly minimal.

Regarding the OPs question, in Ireland it is almost unheard of for Poles to go out with Irish, dont mind this crowd

The simple reason is that 90% plus of the Polish women here have come with the man in tow, even most of the real young ones 17/18 have their man with them. I only know of one Irish lad who went with a Lithuanian (skinny junkie lookin skangbag, and apparently his bird was a cracker, never seen her myself). I think the lads on boards are confusing the term "going out with" with the term "pulled". Most lads in Ireland wouldve pulled a bird from the East, but most of these were attached anyway.

So watch that wife of yours, theyre dodgy

One reason theyd be more likely to hang on to their man is as follows- if they get with an Irish man whos on, lets say, 12 euro an hour, and they stay with him, 10 years down the line theyre going to be struggling to pay the mortgage like everyone else. If they stick with a Pole earning 12 an hour on the sites, when they return home in 5 years they will be living like royalty. Its a no brainer.

Agree with what one of the previous said, the women certainly take more pride in dressing well and looking good than most mainlanders. But tbh Ive said it before and Ill say it again, boards.ie posters seem to have some sort f bitterness to Irish women and brand them as disproportionately ugly. Which is odd, as my large workplace (500 to 1000, dunno exactly) is about 60% foreign, but the Irish and East Europeans would be tied in the best looking category.

In answer to your question, they dont really go down the pub. Big into their club scene though, mad into the dance/rave music and hip hop.

oranje

Tha Gopher wrote:

Agree with what one of the previous said, the women certainly take more pride in dressing well and looking good than most mainlanders. But tbh Ive said it before and Ill say it again, boards.ie posters seem to have some sort f bitterness to Irish women and brand them as disproportionately ugly. Which is odd, as my large workplace (500 to 1000, dunno exactly) is about 60% foreign, but the Irish and East Europeans would be tied in the best looking category.

Of course you can't generalize, there are plenty of good looking Irish girls. However, on any European scale Ireland would be near the bottom in the looks stakes. Visit almost any country in Europe and your eyes will not lie.

I don't think that foreign women think that Irish guys are such hunks either. However, many of them are caught up in the mystical, mythical Ireland fantasy. Irish guys tend to be more confident and to have the chat. That gives them a big advantage in the rest of Europe.

Tha Gopher

oranje wrote:

Of course you can't generalize, there are plenty of good looking Irish girls. However, on any European scale Ireland would be near the bottom in the looks stakes. Visit almost any country in Europe and your eyes will not lie.

I don't think that foreign women think that Irish guys are such hunks either. However, many of them are caught up in the mystical, mythical Ireland fantasy. Irish guys tend to be more confident and to have the chat. That gives them a big advantage in the rest of Europe.

I dunno man. The Spanish, for example, are fcuking stunning until they hit their early 20s. My god, some of the students you see around Dublin, sweet jaysus. I nearly walked out in front of the Luas once I was so distracted. But by the late 20s its seemingly hard to find a nice one. My work is full of them and I can count on one hand the "Id hit that" amount. And Italian women (North Italians anyway, those from the mafia heartland seem to be savage

) are pretty much the same- cute in the late teens, completely lose it in the 20s, with bad taste, specs and skin to match (have met quite a few in their mid 20s with rather nasty acne. I can barely think of an Irish teenage girl, never mind one in her 20s, that I ever knew that had acne). The French are also severely overrated. Admittedtly the continent has alot less fat wmen than Ireland, but its also got a higher proportion that have bad haircuts, bad style and wear those horrendous black or red thick rimmed square glasses.

And Ive found that a huge proportion of young Western European women wear clothes that would have been out of fashion 12 years ago.

oranje

Tha Gopher wrote:

Admittedtly the continent has alot less fat wmen than Ireland, but its also got a higher proportion that have bad haircuts, bad style and wear those horrendous black or red thick rimmed square glasses.

And Ive found that a huge proportion of young Western European women wear clothes that would have been out of fashion 12 years ago.

That's probably the big difference really. Irish women tend to drink more and have bad eating habits. Eastern European women in particular look after themselves so it is no surprise you get the impression there are more good lookers.

Everything is relative too. When I moved to Holland I was sure that the place was full of stunners but now I rarely see a woman I find attractive. My view now is that Belgian women are generally far better looking and stylish but that idea would probably cave in if I was to live there.

thelordofcheese

Tha Gopher wrote:

Admittedtly the continent has alot less fat wmen than Ireland, but its also got a higher proportion that have bad haircuts, bad style and wear those horrendous black or red thick rimmed square glasses.

And Ive found that a huge proportion of young Western European women wear clothes that would have been out of fashion 12 years ago.

This is why I'm glad I'm ignorant of 'fashion'.
As for those square glasses, I quite like them, dunno why though, but I've always thought of people from the continent having their own 'style' as it were, as opposed to being 'unfashionable'

But, what do I know, my general style of clothes hasn't changed since about secondary school [Jeans and T-Shirts, before anyone asks why my uniform still fits...]

Tha Gopher

Maybe. Still, watching Neighbours and the footage of the Aussie celebrations during the World Cup have convinced me that if I ever move there Ill be walking around with a permanent horn for the next 20 years.

Know a few Dutch. Quite nice, and very bang on folks, in terms of culture theyre the West Euopeans most like the Irish and Brits I find (namely heavy social drinking, clubbing, laid back attitude etc)

Am working during the match, bollix to that :mad:

Raekwon

magpie wrote:

A lot of IT types who weren't able to score with Irish women seem to have Polish girlfriends now. Maybe the language barrier and high salary in relative terms make them seem less dull to an outsider? (:D )

^^^ This is complete b****x! ^^^

Polish girls seem to go for guys with a good build and who look after themselves. A few of my mates are going out with Polish girls and they work as mechanics, electricians etc. & not in IT like you suggest. They prefer Polish women because of their stunning features and down to earth personalities. Who can blame them?

Btw anyone who cannot get an Irish girl but who can get a Polish girl is doing something right IMO

Dermington

Raekwon wrote:

^^^ This is complete b****x! ^^^

Polish girls seem to go for guys with a good build and who look after themselves. A few of my mates are going out with Polish girls and they work as mechanics, electricians etc. & not in IT like you suggest

I totally agree. Its obvious that they prefer Polish guys because they take care of themselves. Irish people should be ashamed of themselves being honest. I mean 200k Polish in Cork apparently and I can honestly say that over half my Gym has foreign/foreign looking people.

fly_agaric

^^"200k" Polish in Cork! You sure the gym is only 1/2 full of "foriegn" people then if most of Cork's population were born in Poland?:p