From a family of historians, Poland’s ambassador to Ireland, Tadeusz Szumowski, has an expert’s perspective of his country’s new place in Europe. He speaks to CATHERINE REILLY about Poland’s relationship with Ireland, borne of the many similarities he sees between our two peoples.

They say the past is another country – and when one considers Ireland’s Polish experience, it’s a dictum that rings true. In less than a decade, a small community in its hundreds has morphed into a loose alliance of tens of thousands, evidenced in streetscape by the emergence of Polish food shops, Polish pubs and Polish health clinics.

Indeed, it is safe to say that Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004 has had seismic consequences for both Ireland and Poland alike.

Sketching the change, Poland’s ambassador Tadeusz Szumowski recalls travelling to Ireland five years ago, when the lack of a direct flight meant making a stopover in London. Today, he says, approximately 100 flashing dots glide across radar screens each week, linking the two countries.

“Never in our history have so many people left in such a short period,” says Szumowski, of the number of Poles who began departing their birthland from 1 May 2004, largely in search of better wages in western and northern Europe.

According to Szumowski, the Polish population in Ireland could number up to a quarter of a million, but he emphasises that the embassy has no official statistic. The Irish Government, too, does not have a reliable system of recording the comings and goings of EU migrants. The widely discredited CSO (Central Statistics Office) figure, based on data collected in 2006, put the number of Poles at just over 63,000 – but one could randomly stick a pin anywhere between that figure and 250,000 when guestimating.

While mass emigration to western Europe has been the subject of controversy in a number of eastern and central European countries, Szumowski ultimately views it as part of a hard-won freedom.

“It is something very normal,” he says, “something we were struggling for, for many years - the freedom of choice, the freedom of movement, the freedom of work. That’s something that is a great achievement of the European Union.”

Now, the indications are that Poland’s emigration phenomenon is to some extent reversing itself. As its economy picks up, and Ireland’s bobs along on shaky waters, some of Ireland’s Polish population are beginning to move on.

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TADEUSZ Szumowski has also done a fair amount of moving through the years. Following a long-standing family tradition, he studied history as an undergraduate at Warsaw University in the early 1970s, and subsequently undertook doctoral research on Poland and Britain’s 20th century relationship.

At the time, a “fantastic group of professors” manned the university’s history department, and Szumowski, who is a Warsaw native, stayed on to teach and research. In the mid1980s, however, he decided on a major career change, taking up a management role at a computer firm in Warsaw, before returning to an area closer to his academic background, joining the foreign ministry as Poland broke free from communism in 1989.

His first posting, in the early 1990s, was to Poland’s UK embassy, where he served as head of mission and charge d’affaires. It was a time of “millions of changes” in central and eastern Europe, and Szumowski says he found it fascinating to observe from a distance.

In 1994 he returned to Poland, serving as deputy director of the foreign ministry’s Asia department. Three years later he was elevated to his first ambassadorial position when he was dispatched to Australia, where he noted “a certain western civilisation approach to world politics”.

From there, he returned once again to Poland in 2001 during a period of political upheaval, when he experienced a difficulty in fitting in. For a period, Szumowski headed the foreign ministry’s archives section, a particular delight for a trained historian.

“We knew the history of Poland from the war until 1990 from what we knew from the press,” he says, “but what was really inside was enormously interesting.”

Did Szumowski find evidence of any documents having been destroyed? “No, they were not destroyed,” he says. “They were kept under lock and key, and it was very difficult for many, many years to see these documents, to have access to the archives.”

From the archival section, he moved to the foreign ministry’s personnel department as its chief. “It was a very challenging job, I must say, because the foreign ministry had around 4,000 people altogether – and the job was to administer all these people, to decide whether they will go abroad or whether they stay home, and what they will do. It was an enormous job,” he recalls.

“The human resources; I never expected this job being so interesting. Sometimes I felt like a king – so to say, of course – but when you see that you have to decide about 4,000 people’s futures, sometimes in a very instrumental way, it is very challenging.”

He was subsequently selected as Poland’s fifth ambassador to Ireland, and took up this role in September 2006. He arrived at a time when Ireland’s Polish communities were ballooning, and when consular services at the embassy were in endless demand – and struggling to cope.

Four years ago, there was one Polish consul officer in Ireland, whose time was also required in the embassy’s political section. Today, 12 people work at the Polish consulate office, which opened a new premises on Eden Quay in central Dublin last September. The opening of this facility is regarded by Szumowski as a major achievement on the part of everyone working at the Polish embassy, which has its ambassadorial base on leafy Ailsebury Road in Dublin 4.

“A year ago we had a consulate which was in one room. Now we have a very modern, very European-standard consulate in the centre of the city. It is a completely separate building with easy access from the street, with a very good service we can provide to the Polish citizens.”

Listening to the amount of work that goes on at the consulate is exhausting in itself. “All the legal matters – passports, visas, legal problems at work, legal problems when they were ill in hospital, sometimes people in prison, sometimes we are acting as a kind of office helping them build a new life in Ireland, or going back to Poland… selling a house or buying something, investing money or deciding about the future life in Poland, everything goes through the Polish consulate.”

The signs are, however, that the current level of work will subside in the next few years.

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ON A RECENT boating holiday along the River Shannon, Szumowski noticed vacant houses on the scenic waterside – “beautiful houses, newly built, but empty.”

He comments: “We talked to a number of Poles we met – as usual we met Poles everywhere – and what we learned from them was they were working in the construction business but there are no more jobs for them, so they are planning to go home. It is very visible, especially in the construction industry, it’s going through a certain… maybe not a crisis but a certain hiccup.”

He also refers to the decline in the strength of the euro, another factor swaying some Poles towards a return home: “Three years ago, if somebody could save €1,000, he could get 4,500 złotys; now if you save €1,000, which is very difficult, you will only get 3,000 złotys. It’s not the same money, so people are starting to think whether it’s worth living in foreign countries like Ireland.”

Meanwhile, overseas Poles are paying close attention to their native economy’s improvement. “Poland looks now like a country with huge progress in the economy. It’s because of the European Union, the huge structural funds, the inflow of money coming from the EU,” he remarks.

Poland also has an ace up its sleeve – it will co-host the 2012 Uefa European soccer championships with Ukraine, resulting in major infrastructural projects.

“Soccer is the national sport in Poland,” says Szumowski, “we have 40 million specialists in soccer – it’s something we can live on, it’s something very, very special.

“And now, for the first time in our history, we are to organise the Euro soccer championships in 2012, but we have to build stadiums, roads, motorways, railway stations, airports, hotels, everything.

“We know that we can do it, but we need the people, and it looks like a lot of people have got the experience here in Ireland, they are already the future workforce for us in Poland. That’s why we want them back!”

All of them?

“Well, I don’t know, it depends on them. There is no administrative pressure on them,” he replies. “I would say from my talks with the people, a number of them think ‘well, it’s time to go back’. Not all of them, of course, not all of them.”

Nevertheless, the Polish government is certainly attempting to lure back those caught in two minds, through its aptly named ‘Come Home’ programme. “It promises easier bank loans, for building the houses, for example, or buying the flat,” explains Szumowski.

Another key element of the ‘Come Home’ strategy is the continued development of Polish weekend schools abroad, so that young Polish children in countries such as Ireland can keep attuned to the Polish education system, in the event of returning. “We have schools in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Cavan. Now we are doing it in Galway.”

The Polish language, meanwhile, is a subject at Leaving Cert level but isn’t an official examination topic – unlike French and German, for example – and therefore isn’t applicable when tallying up points for third level courses. Does Szumowski feel this should be altered?

“It should be, there’s no doubt,” he replies. “It’s the second most spoken language in this country – I was very much surprised, but it is, before Irish.” Szumowski says that, in Ireland, there is a clear need for Polish “to be accepted at least on the same level as the other [major European languages] are – Spanish, Italian, etc.” He adds that this requirement extends to the introduction of Polish language tours in galleries and museums, and on sightseeing tours.

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Despite this emphasis on the Polish language, Szumowski says the embassy has been encouraging Polish immigrants in Ireland to learn English, but that those living outside Dublin face a shortage of English courses. “Dublin is not a problem, it is a huge city and you can find classes in Dublin. But if you go to the smaller cities, the smaller towns, there’s a question,” he says.

Szumowski has encountered some isolated examples of employers becoming involved in assisting their employees to learn English – even by just adjusting their work hours to accommodate it – and feels this could be part of a nationwide system.

“Unfortunately, it is not everywhere,” he says of this example. “Sometimes people are completely lost – they come with no knowledge of English, they stay with no knowledge of English and they come back with no knowledge of English.”

Those immigrants coming to Ireland with little or no English have made particularly rich pickings for unscrupulous employers hoping to cash in on their low wage expectations. Against this background, the State’s exploitation investigative body, the National Employment Rights Authority, has only recently appointed five Polish-speaking inspectors to its ranks. Considering that significant Polish emigration to Ireland began in 2004, is this a little late?

“It is late,” says Szumowski, “but better late than never.” He also refers to the positive impact two Polish nationals employed by trade union Siptu have had on the fight against exploitation.

The Polish in Ireland are sometimes framed within the context of negative news – exploitation, drinking, taking ‘Irish’ jobs, poor driving habits – but Szumowski says he has never detected “Polish phobia” within the Irish media or society.

“If you have a community of around a quarter of a million, statistically you have to take it that you have people who are drunk, people driving under the influence of alcohol, thieves in the shops, murderers, paedophiles…” But he also notes Poles’ positive contributions.

“We are just normal, absolutely normal, nothing specific for good, nothing specific for bad.”

He continues: “I checked the reasons for the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty and migration was one per cent, which is nothing. So migration is not a problem in this country. Yet, yet. If the crisis goes on, if we really have a feeling of rising unemployment, an amount of people on the streets without a job, it could come.

“But from my perspective, Conor Lenihan, Minister for Integration, and his people are doing a really, really very good job to integrate the newcomers from all over Europe to the Irish population. Integration doesn’t mean assimilation, that’s a huge difference.”

The Polish embassy has been particularly active in promoting and supporting cultural events aimed at both the Polish and the Irish population – initiatives which, it is put to Szumowski, have helped to reduce the image of the Polish person as ‘just a worker’.

“That’s true,” he responds, “We try to show this Polish culture in two ways. There are a lot of theatre plays, cabaret, music concerts which are directed mainly at the Polish community. That’s one.

“But at the same time we are trying to put the light on the Irish spectators or audience. So there is a Polish film festival directed mainly to the Irish, there is a Polish theatre festival but in English.”

The opportunities to come together are important, he says, as then people can discover the similarities that exist between the Irish and the Poles.

“You are on the west, we are on the east, but it looks like we have a lot in common between us – I would say a very similar understanding [of life], a very similar history, a very similar way of spending time. If you go to Temple Bar on a Friday night you will hear Polish and English being mixed together, and you’ll see people sitting in the pubs just talking – that’s very important, making friends, creating some knowledge of each other.”

Szumowski says an increasing number of Irish people are visiting Poland, sometimes travelling to the small villages and towns of their Polish neighbours in Ireland.

“This young Polish community are very good ambassadors of Poland, and also of their place,” he remarks. “So the Irish people are also travelling to the small villages and the small hamlets, to see the places of their neighbours.”

He adds that, even on the EU front, Poland and Ireland are often fighting from the same corner, and on the Lisbon Treaty rejection he adopts the eggshell approach, commenting: “We can only be of help to [Ireland] if help is needed, but we absolutely accept the verdict of the Irish people… We believe that the other countries of Europe should ratify the treaty, then we will wait for Ireland to do the same maybe in the future. But it’s absolutely an Irish decision, it’s not up to us.”

The Polish ambassador would also be happy to see Poles getting involved in Irish politics.

“You will have the local elections and the European parliament elections next year. I would be very happy seeing Poles being active in these elections, not only taking part but trying to be elected, to join the politics and the interior life of Irish politics, that’s very important.”

He also encourages Poles based in the cities to take some time to travel around Ireland. “Dublin is interesting,” he says, “but the countryside of Ireland is unique, it is something special.”

The temporary nature of many Poles’ stay has led to a reluctance, in some quarters, to get involved in Irish life, notes the ambassador, adding that this is also a probable factor behind the absence of a central Polish representative organisation in Ireland.

“I mean, we as an embassy, we cannot build an organisation for them. If there can be pressure from the bottom, if they would really like to create something, we will only be too happy to see what they are building. But it is not up to us to make the job for them, it is up to them, they have to feel the need for the organisation.”

Szumowski says a number of Polish organisations, across various fields, are active in Ireland, from arts-focused groups to sports teams who’ve competed in the Sports Against Racism Ireland tournaments – a group Szumowski pays particular credit to.

Indeed, it is Ireland’s Polish community itself that Szumowski lists as the highlight of his tenure as ambassador thus far.