UK, Ireland /
Estimated number of Poles in Ireland thought to exceed 200,000 OR over 5% of population. [200]
I'm only asking but you are making excuses not to answer my question.
I'm not - you need to make it clear what it is that you want to know for a start.
Firstly you appeared to reject the suggestion (@ post# 67) that Ireland has a different history, language, culture to Britain. Do you honestly think this?
Then, you seemed to expect a description of Irish culture. Better men than I have spent their entire academic careers attempting to define "culture" for a start, but assuming we can agree that it refers to a way of life, socially and psychologically, then the parameters will be mostly the same for every country.
The references will always be concerning the arts, family attitudes, attitudes to work, to socialising etc. A Hungarian might say "oh we have a rich unique tradition of literature and folklore, families are close and consulted on decisions, us Hungarians work to live rather than live to work....etc etc... and this could apply to half the countries in Europe. Unless e.g all Estonians are obssessed with cloud formations, there are very few unique points of reference for any country or culture.
Everyone likes to think that their own culture is unique (within reason) and many people, from a distance, view other cultures as similar to each other. The other problem is that to define your own culture, to really distinguish it, it is usually necessary to make invidious comparisons (e.g. unlike the Germans we think abc, Although to the French xyz is important, in Ireland we...whatever) and that is just asking for trouble.
So although I could provide you an answer of sorts, it's not easy to do so, and basically my explanation will invariably be disputed as many other countries will say "what's Irish about that? sounds like Polish/Dutch/French as well"
Put it this way, can you tell me briefly and clearly about "Polish culture" ?
Maybe you can try, but I guarantee that I could substitute at least 5 or 6 other countries in place of Poland and the description will still make perfect sense.
You have to live somewhere, or at the very least visit, to get a real flavour. Your nationality and own culture will define and filter your experience anyway: the experience and "cultural report" of a Finn may be very different that of an Italian.
I'm sure it's not the answer you want but it's all you are getting from me anyway : )
