History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


No, it wasn't.


No, the IRA was not a left wing organization. The IRA is not the same organization as the Provisional IRA. That's why I asked Sh*tty 'which IRA' he was referring to. Although obviously, just like you, he doesn't know the difference.


Another ignorant and false statement. The majority of Nationalists in the North of Ireland did not support the Provisional IRA. The peace movements which abounded in NI from the mid 1970s onwards demonstrated that very clearly. As I have stated many, many times on this forum, Irish people, North and South (bar a tiny handful of extremists) do not support in any shape or form the activities of the Provisional IRA. It was for precisely this reason that we voted for the Good Friday Agreement back in 1998 - to end the violence.

I don't expect anybody to have any knowledge of Irish history or any interest in it BUT, if they raise the subject or involve themselves in a discussion on it, then I DO expect them to know what they're talking about - and if they don't know what they're talking about, I expect them to educate themselves before opening their mouths.

Another thing I'd like to know, is Sh*tty's rationale for why the Nice treaty succeeded second time round, such a short time after the initial 'no' vote. What changed?? I know the answer, wonder if he does.

News / What should Poland do to solve the population crisis? [101]


Talk about pot, kettle, black - nothing but lies and inventions from you when you think you can get away with it - speaking of which, what are you doing here hiding in the long grass? Why aren't you on the Nice treaty thread, responding to my comments of yesterday? Could it be because Diddums has made an even worse fool of himself than last time, and doesn't know how to wriggle out of it? And I see from your comments regarding population that you don't understand economics either - quelle surprise!


Well, PIS's solution was the 500 plus program, an unsustainable social welfare initiative. Falling birth rates are an issue in many European countries.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]

Oh Sh*tty, you spent a lot of time and effort on that , sadly to little avail. You still didn't address the original lies though - come on please, let's see the evidence of hate crimes against Poles in Ireland and let's see those stats about foreigners outnumbering the Irish.


Now, now now - your very poor grasp of Irish history is once again evident. Ireland was not neutral in WWI. Do your research properly.


To which IRA are you referring?


Which wars would those be?


What is an Irish nationalist?

As for 'completely anglicized, you've obviously never been to Ireland, but I think we gathered that anyway :) Slán go fóill agus go n-éirí an bóthar leat.


Addressing this one separately as I didn't have time earlier.

As you're a complete ignoramus you won't know that Ireland was one of the very few countries who refused to acknowledge the PRL (indeed we had no diplomatic relations with any Eastern Bloc countries until the mid 1970s). We continued to recognize the Polish Government in Exile till 1963, though the Polish Consulate in Dublin closed in 1958. Following that, there was no Polish embassy in Ireland nor Irish embassy in Poland, until 1990.

Due to our refusal to recognize the government of the PRL, Poland joined the Soviet Union in vetoing Ireland's application for UN membership. Ireland had begun raising money to build a hospital in Warsaw as part of our contribution to immediate post-war relief for Poland but our application was refused by the Polish Communist government.

Immediately after the war, through the Polish Government in Exile, Ireland invited members of the Polish Home Army to come to Ireland to study. The invitation was initially issued by University College Cork. The scheme came to an end in 1962.

In 1983, apart from the aid already being given by the Irish government to address food shortages in Poland, the Irish people raised funds to send twenty containers of medical supplies, food and clothing to the people of Poland.


I'm glad you mentioned him. On his visit to Ireland in 1979 he specifically requested that he visit the ancient monastery of Clonmacnoise as he understood that it was from there that the Irish monks had come to Poland to bring the Catholic faith "and for this gift of the faith to Poland, I today thank God in this sacred place."

I don't have time for the rest of your nonsense now, but there's so much material there to work with - it's meat and drink to me as my dear grandmother would say.

News / Polish Police Hunt for Bad Taste Boorish Brits [39]

Thanks Paw, you make a very good point. However, just in case he is actually the half-wit that he appears to be, it does no harm to give him a balanced view. Poland,like all countries, is a mixed bag. However, at this time of year, it's just beautiful - Polish spring with all that delikatna zielona on the trees, the blossom breaking through, the promise of lilac to come :)) oh and Easter, my favourite Polish festival. You REALLY know how to 'do' Easter.

News / Polish Police Hunt for Bad Taste Boorish Brits [39]


Would that be the same Poland with 24 hour alcohol shops, sex shops and gabinet eroticzny, not to mention the brothels openly advertising their services with their street signage. Speaking of the sex shops, in one of those underpass places in Warsaw, it used to be full of shops which have all closed down and the one remaining unit is a sex shop, speaks volumes really doesn't it?

Poland, culturally rich in certain respects definitely, as are most European countries, highly developed, not so much. Getting there certainly but still a long way to go and the progress made so far couldn't have been achieved without the EU. You weren't in Poland before they joined the EU (or indeed since) so you won't know what I'm talking about. Of course there is still the problem of the huge divide between the parts of Poland where that funding has been pumped in and the places where it hasn't.


As indeed do you. Can't come up with any evidence for your foolish and false claims that Poles have been subjected to a catalogue of hate crimes in Ireland. You invented that story and thus are obliged to repeatedly ignore requests for evidence, as it doesn't exist. Ditto your lies about foreigners outnumbering the native Irish in many urban areas of Ireland when in fact they don't outnumber natives in ANY part of Ireland. Not to mention the fact that you said the people of Eastern Europe were unknown and alien to us, when the Irish people have been actively involved in helping in Belarus, Russia and Romania amongst other places since the 1980s.

So put that on your needles and knit it.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


Thanks Maf :) At whom would the malice be directed? Do you mean he was trying to annoy the British or that he was being facetious towards the Germans? I don't think it's the latter as there's no evidence that Dev was burdened with any kind of sense of humour. I think he was just being infuriatingly literal in observing diplomatic protocol. I wonder if he might have had a touch of Asperger's syndrome or some other kind of high functioning Autism. His demeanour would certainly suggest it.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]

He did, the great lummox. I have no idea what 'the shiv' is but De Valera was an odd character in many ways.

Feedback / Will this forum be available in Europe if Article 13 passes? [30]

Oh Maf, would you ever come off it? Forget about the EU for a minute and look at individual nations and what democratic provisions they provide for the overturning of 'unpopular' legislation within their own countries. What do you have in America?

Feedback / Will this forum be available in Europe if Article 13 passes? [30]


The European Council does not propose legislation. It's the Commission who proposes it and Parliament who approve or reject it.


MEPs can't directly propose but can ask the European Commission to propose legislation.


You're confused between the Council and the Commission. The Council is comprised of the heads of state of each EU country so there's no choice in who sits on it.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]

Because we were wandering too far off the subject of the thread, I should think.

So let's get back to the original allegation, that Ireland specifically rejected the Nice Treaty because of Poland - not because of any of the other accession countries you notice, but of because of Poland in particular. Lies of course. And then we have the supposed violence perpetrated by the Irish against the Polish community in Ireland, More lies. And finally Sh*tty, when asked by Pawian, had no explanation as to why the treaty was accepted second time round especially as the Irish are apparently filled with 'visceral' hatred for the Polish people. Actually, the second time round,we got a concession/opt out from participating in a common European defence pact. One of the reasons the original treaty was voted down was because of perceived threats to Irish neutrality. That was also one of the reasons for the failure of the Lisbon Treaty first time round and the same thing happened, we got an opt out and it passed.

Then of course we have Sh*tty's bizarre reasoning that Poland deserved to join the EU and get 'handouts' because they 'suffered' in WWII (funnily enough he didn't mention the PRL years) but Ireland apparently didn't deserve the same, despite 750 years of oppression,genocide, starvation etc.

Now we just have to wait for Sh*tty to come back and finish what he started - except he won't because he's made a fool of himself and has no intelligent arguments to make.


The people of "Eastern Europe" were not completely unknown to us Sh*tty because the greedy Irish were the first to put their hands in their pockets, years before any other nation, for the people of Chernobyl back in 1986, and to this day have pumped tens of millions into that community, gone out there in our thousands to help and welcomed the disabled children of Chernobyl into our own homes. We were also among the very first people to go out to Romania when Ceaușescu's regime collapsed and in 1989 Irish people adopted almost a thousand children from Romanian orphanages. Countless Slavic lives have been saved and enchanced through the direct generosity of the Irish people. According to Ukrainian Dr Igor Polivenok who appealed for help in 2015:

"It is unbelievable. It's like a miracle that such a small island has such a big heart. I cannot find the words to express how grateful I am. You have given these poor children a chance of life."

News / Hollywood's War with Poland. [150]


Unlike your recent thread about the Nice Treaty. I'm still waiting for your proof of the catalogue of violence and discrimination against Poles in Ireland, also your stats for the 'many urban areas' of Ireland where foreigners outnumber natives.


Hollywood has no understanding of historical events anywhere. The only thing they understand is the box office.

Most people outside Poland, other than the Polish diaspora (and not all of them by any means), don't think about Poland or Poles at all. Why would they? The truth of the matter is that most ordinary people think mainly about themselves and their own country first and then their closest neighbours, but only in relation to how affairs in neighbouring countries might impact their own lives.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


So you invented your own idiom - but you don't understand the original idiom, it seems because 'smoke and fireworks' doesn't have the same meaning.


I don't know what you are, but I know that you're not what you profess to be, like so many here. You tell quite a lot of big old porky pies.


Seems you don't understand that word either ' deceit in order to achieve one's goals'. What deceitful actions did we carry out and what were our goals?

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


I think you mean smoke and mirrors. You're a bit hazy on your idioms. I don't see that there's any obfuscation involved in stating the undeniable fact (and all the evidence is available if you choose to research it) that Ireland wasn't 'completely neutral' as Sh*tty alleged, because they rendered assistance to the Allies and whilst they interned captured German airmen, they let alllied ones go. Treating the two sides differently is not being neutral. The Irish embassy in the Vatican also smuggled out hundreds of Jews and Allied prisoners of war. That's not being neutral either.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


The only people who use that one are Kenny Rogers fans - 'folks just called him yella'.

Read about Operation Green. It might interest you and you might actually learn something.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


More American English.........dearie me. Although I don't believe the Irish have any reputation for cowardice, quite the opposite. You're confusing us with the Italians :)

Jon is right. If the Germans had landed, with our lack of manpower and military hardware we couldn't have survived a week. Actually, Britain would have had to help out and defend our coastline as well as their own, using resources needed elsewhere.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


I notice you still haven't managed to answer any of the questions I put to you. At least give me the details of the alleged catalogue of rapes, murders and robbery of Poles in Ireland.


As was Ireland's in the context of its 800 years of suffering. Read about it, as you clearly don't know any Irish history. Oh and btw we actually fired shots and gave our lives for our independence, unlike Poland who had it handed to them on a platter in 1918 :)


We can't ignore the fact according to Sh"tty that she is singlehandedly and maliciously responsible for preventing Poland's accession to the EU. Incidentally she also recorded a song in which she taunted Sh"tty about his 'fairytales'.

youtube.com/watch?v=-SWUAXVp-hQ

"I do believe that you believe your fairtyale" la, la, la.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


Yes, and she's an acknowledged expert on snowdrops and daffodils, not to mention butterflies, bees and things of the seas. No wonder the farming community has so much respect for her, not to mention the Fisheries I'm sure :D

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


Of course he can't. He hasn't a clue what he's talking about. However, just for a bit of fun, let's see him provide the evidence for the various lies he tells in the first post :)


Not true. Supply these stories.It baffles me why you would want to present Polish immigrants to Ireland as pitiful victims when in fact they have been very successful and are generally well liked.


Not true. Bet you don't know anything about the Donegal Corridor and the Battle of the Atlantic. Anyway Irish people did our bit in that war, 70,000 Irish joined the British forces including 5,000 Irish men who deserted from the Irish army, eight Victoria Crosses is not a bad record for a neutral country. Many members of my own family died serving in the British forces in WWII.


Another lie. Where are your stats?


What policies are those? Outline them, with supporting evidence.


Exactly Jon.

Mods, yes I know, too many quotes but Sh*tty is telling lies, making up fairy tales in his own head and pretending that they're facts. Cant' have that.

Btw Sh*tty, one of the people you quoted in your post (I read the article) was Rosemary Scallon better known to us as Dana. She's actually from Northern Ireland, anyway, not the Republic. This is she. As you can imagine, she's not taken very seriously in Irish politics.:

youtube.com/watch?v=5ykEiUeP_58

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


Yes isn't it? People like that tend to thrive on the fact that most posters don't know any more about the topics under discussion then they do themselves and obviously have neither the time nor inclination to research them so a lot their rubbish goes largely unchallenged.

History / Study Shows Irish Voters Rejected the Nice Treaty Referendum Due to Poland's Entry Into the EU [80]


It's not a 'study'. It's an article - and a pretty irrelevant one at this stage. It was written nearly twenty years ago when the item was of interest to academics. We've all moved on a long way since then.

Incidentally I wouldn't be so quick to boast about your 'masculine thinking', as I'm afraid you'll find that your original post is full of factual errors regarding Ireland, including the howler that many urban areas of Ireland have more foreigners than native population :))

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


That's called the Communion plate. It's in case the host falls to the ground when it's being transferred from priest to communicant. The handle (or sometimes handles) ensures that the altar boy has a firm grip and is less likely to drop the plate - it goes like this: they're worried that the host might fall so they decide to have a plate to catch it, but then the altar boy might drop the plate thus startling the priest and communicant who in turn might drop the host and ...........so it goes on.............ah the world of religion :))

Love / Asking Polish Girl to be in a relationship [22]


Girl is the term used in Ireland to refer to any woman under the age of forty :) but older people, in their seventies or eighties will also call a woman in her fifties, a girl :))


An American perspective. No pre-nups in Ireland. You can make one but they have no legal standing and are not enforceable. That's because we don't have a community properly law. In Ireland If you get divorced, there is no automatic entitlement to half your husband's/wife's money or property. It's literally decided on a case by case basis and not necessarily in court. That's a last resort if you can't come go an agreement by other means. You have to be separated four years to even start divorce proceedings in Ireland so it's not a get rich quick option for gold diggers. In general, division of property has to be fair, so a childless woman in her 30s who's been married to her husband for example for three years is not going to get half his property/money and he won't have to sell his house, nor will she get any maintenance.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


In Ireland, it's your own choice, how you want to receive it. Communion has been given into the hand for about forty years now I think. We were taught in school how to receive Communion in the hand and most people choose to take it that way. You cup both hands, and the priest places it in the left hand and you take it with the right, if you're left-handed you can reverse it of course.

By a strange coincidence I came across this yesterday and thought it might amuse you. This short film was made by two Irish priests who had a long running religious affairs program on Irish television. Note that though it was made 50 years ago when Ireland was a much more 'Catholic' country than now, there's nothing solemn about it, it's intentionally humorous, in a rather dry, satirical way. . I think that's the main difference I find between the Irish and Polish forms of Catholicism, yours is a lot more 'serious', not much room for laughter.

This is a film with with every Irish Catholic would identify. I don't know about Poles :)

rte.ie/archives/2017/0904/902134-manners-in-church/

Love / Asking Polish Girl to be in a relationship [22]

Hi Alan. Yes this forum is indeed very weird, welcome to our world :)) You won't find many Polish girls here, or indeed many Poles at all. Most posters are men and a mixture of Polish diaspora of various kinds, very few of whom live in Poland or assorted ex-pats living in Poland, some married to Polish women. This is seasoned with a few Russian trolls and assorted random nutcases of various nationalities. Apart from the Jew-hating, Muslim hating etc, there's quite a bit of woman-hating too. There are regular posters here who think women are too stupid to be allowed to vote and are all sluts and gold diggers, so don't waste your time responding to them. There is one very nice, sensible Polish girl called Kaprys who posts here from time to time so she might be along at some point and could possibly advise. In the meantime I'll have a go.

Ok, so Alan, I'm Irish, married to a Polish man whom I met in Ireland and we're now living in Poland. Here's my opinion for what it's worth.


Go for it. You say she wants a gesture and that will do the job nicely.

Basically with Polish women, this is how they appear to me, as an Irish woman, and you know what we're like :)) (some of us aren't too bad!). Bear in mind of course that it's a generalization.

First of all Polish women are not quite as demure and pure as you might imagine. Despite all that traditional Catholic stuff they're every bit as casual about sex as a lot of Irish women, in fact more so, and they will sleep with a guy without an expectation of a relationship.

Secondly, once they're in a relationship they like the romantic gestures and being made to feel special. They can be very affectionate and attentive to their men but they can also be more moody and demanding than Irish women, who are more easygoing. Irish women tend to be more forthright and will tell you straight out if they're annoyed with you or not happy about something. Polish women will go silent on you and sulk and you'll be wondering what on earth you did wrong. I also find that Polish men and women tend to be much more jealous and possessive than Irish. Maybe it's because we have the pub culture in Ireland where the sexes mingle and socialize very casually together. We have a more fluid and less couple oriented way of socializing.

Being one of a couple in Poland means that you do a lot of stuff together and your individual friendships and outside interests can take a bit of a back seat. Visiting each other's families at the weekend would be common, you know, going for Sunday lunch, that kind of thing. You know in Ireland, if you live near your parents, you might drop in for a cup of tea, but you wouldn't be spending half the day with them and you wouldn't necessarily bring your girlfriend. You might call in to your parents on the way to your girlfriend's place.

Next, romantic though they can be, Polish women are very practical when it comes to relationships. If they're in a serious relationship they expect it to lead to marriage. After two or three years, they expect the proposal and if they don't get it, they'll move on. And they don't go in for long engagements either. So if you get involved with this girl, you can be expect to be married to her within four years. Also, they don't like to delay having children nor do they like to leave long gaps between children. Polish people, even very well educated professional people, tend to marry and have kids a lot younger than the Irish. You'll see women just shy of thirty with a Masters Degree, already married with a kid and another on the way. Once a Polish woman is heading for thirty, she won't waste time on a guy who's not offering marriage.

Now, as I say, that's just what I've observed and others may disagree.

Ok, finally, there's the question of where you're going to live. At some point, she may want to return to Poland. Are you ready to move to Poland and raise your children there, as Poles, because they will be more Polish than Irish if they grow up in Poland. Equally, from her point of view, her kids will be more Irish than Polish, if you stay in Ireland - and many Polish women are happy in Ireland until they have kids.

So now Alan, there's plenty for you to chew over! Good luck :))

Real Estate / Swiss Francs Mortgages in Poland [71]

I would have no sympathy for foreigners who took out huge mortgages with the idea of investing in Polish property. Same goes for Polish investors. As an investor, you have to accept that sometimes investments don't pay off and you end up losing money.

I would have some sympathy for ordinary Poles who simply wanted to buy a home but it would depend on what they bought. I'm not sympathetic to people who buy bigger, more expensive places than they need. A single guy buying 80 or 90 square metres with two terraces (and plenty of people did just that), would not elicit much sympathy from me. However a single person buying a modest 30 sq metre apartment, well, I'd feel sorry for them or equally a small family buying 60 or 70sq metres. You can't deny that many Polish people at the time, particularly younger ones, were financially naive, inexperienced and susceptible to the marketing techniques used to sell those mortgages to them.

Real Estate / Swiss Francs Mortgages in Poland [71]

I think that you'll find that most Poles who have a mortgage in Swiss Francs would be very much in favour of it.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


Are you sure?? It looks like a baby doll.


We don't have any equivalent to kolęda in Ireland. A couple of weeks before Christmas you receive a Christmas card with a list of the Christmas mass and confession times plus an envelope for your Christmas 'dues' as they're known. The dues are due at Easter and Christmas. If you want to, you pop an offering in the envelope and drop it anonymously into a box in the church. Priests don't do the rounds of houses at all at any time of year but they will certainly come to the house if invited. Some families like to have a mass said in the house once a year, some people like to have the house blessed when they've just moved in to a new place. The priest generally only visits when he has an arrangement to bring Communion to those who are too infirm to go to Mass. Nowadays however it's more likely to be brought by a Minister of the Eucharist, a layperson. He doesn't wear the full kit either when he brings Communion, he just puts the stole round his neck. Cross-cultural Catholic information exchange :))

Real Estate / Swiss Francs Mortgages in Poland [71]

Terri is right I'm afraid. Don't hold your breath. They've been talking about this for about four years. This is an election year and PIS would like to be re-elected so they'll stall and try to give the impression that something is being done in order to get votes, but whether anything will come of it, who can say. The last time that this law was on the verge of being passed, they decided that they couldn't afford it so it was shelved. Now at least six of the larger banks have objected and have written to the European Commission with their complaints so that means further delays and red tape.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

It's just an ordinary baby doll, but the photo makes it look as if there's something like ectoplasm emanating from it! Anyway, His Nibs is obviously a priest and he's probably doing his January visits as Maf says, but he's wearing his vestments and the table is laid with the 'good' white tablecloth so I would say he's doing a blessing of the house. It's not properly set up for Communion or Mass. He's probably just received a donation from the household and is recording in his book.

History / History of video games in communist Poland? [7]

@ Renix, no, videogames weren't prohibited. It took some effort to get hold of them but it was possible and there was a lot of piracy so they were affordable and accessible.

Here are a few articles that will help you.

mywarsawdream.blogspot.com/2018/01/video-games-in-poland.html
culture.pl/en/article/pegasus-other-famiclones-how-polish-kids-discovered-nintendo-games-in-the-1990s

kotaku.co.uk/2018/10/26/from-piracy-to-billions-how-poland-became-a-video-games-nation