Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]


Maybe it's not mental illness, maybe you're just a bit "Irish". Freud actually said that the Irish were the one people for whom pscyho-analysis would be of no use whatsoever.


You have documents for your great-great grandad? That's very good, hard to come by in Ireland because the recording of births, deaths, marriages was quite random until the mid-nineteenth century and then in 1922 during the Irish Civil War there was a huge fire at the Customs House in Dublin and many records were destroyed so there was a whole generation of Irish people with no birth certs because they went up in smoke.

The name O'Bryan with that particular spelling, is found in Cork as early as 1659 in Pender's Census which was one of the first records the British made after Cromwell came over. It originates in Co Clare though.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


Yes, his name was Herbert Sulzbach OBE. He won an Iron Cross in the First World War at the Battle of the Somme. He wrote a memoir of his First World War service entitled With The German Guns. He was actually Jewish which makes his work with the SS prisoners all the more impressive.

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]


Or it could be about a legacy. It's incredible the way families can fall out about something like a teapot that one of them expected to get and didn't! You know the "I always admired that teapot and Ellie said it would come to me when she was gone and then Ellie's daughter never mentioned it - and of course I didn't say anything. I mean everybody knew that Ellie's rose trellis teapot was to come to me. I was so disgusted - I made up my mind that I'd never speak to her again and I never have!"


The surname is normally spelled O'Brien, so the O'Bryan spelling must have been a help in your research as it narrows the field down a bit. Whereabouts did he come from in Ireland?? Which county? You know it's derived from King Brian Boru from whom about half the men in Ireland are descended, I'm not joking, it's true. I'm descended from his brother, through my maternal grandmother, so that makes you and me very distant cousins of a sort :))


Red hair is not actually that common in Ireland, the commonest colour is plain old brown, but I have the blue eyes. Also the freckles aren't quite as common as you might imagine, but Irish people do tend to be very pale.

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]


I'm an Irish Catholic actually :)) a real one, as in I was actually born in Ireland to Irish parents. I don't see how your half-Polish, American born granny can be Irish! I think it's an American thing, that. Anyway, I would try searching American records for marriages between bride Barnawich and groom Thomas for the first few years after your great-granny arrived in America with her mother. That might help you to establish if her mother remarried. Good luck :) Btw does your mother not know what the grudge is about? I'm a typical woman so I'm interested in the grudge too, it is part of your family history after all, even if it's recent history! I think you'll find Valerie, that your mother has some idea what it might be about but doesn't want to talk about it either.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


Did you ever hear of the Scottish POW camp, Cultybraggan, where they interned the hardened SS men? They used Polish guards as they felt that the Brits would be too soft on them. Then a German took over. He had served with distinction in the First World War so they had respect for him. He proceeded to re-educate them. They rioted when he showed them the footage of Belsen, refusing to believe it was genuine. Eventually they were able to assemble in uniform and participate in a service for all the dead of the War from both sides where he read to them the Canadian First World War poem "In Flanders Fields'. Some of them settled in Scotland, many revisited the community in later years and retained ties with the local people. One who lived to an advanced age, left his estate of several hundred thousand pounds for the use of the village community.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]


Wimbledon only became part of London about fifty years ago Spike. It was in the Home Counties before that. London is forever expanding and pushing outwards but a lot of Londoners still don't really see it as London. It's not the geographical distance, it's something much harder to define. To many people Inner London is the real London, the rest comprises outlying districts which were absorbed into London much, much later and have an entirely different character.

Stick to the topic please

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Yes, but a lot of the Poles knocking around London forty years ago were actually born there :)) We have a few Poles who married into my own family and they were born in London to Polish parents who settled there after the War but like London Irish, they grew up culturally more English than anything else. I would still imagine that an obvious 'foreign' neighbour would have have been a little bit exotic to some locals in the outskirts of London. Of course as Doug says there is that lovely liberal element in middle class, middle brow England, really nice people but there are always a few very conservative types too. I remember back in the 1980s, I was watching some daytime show and a panelist (a typical Home Counties house wife) mentioned how alarmed she had been when her cousin married a Catholic as 'we didn't know what to expect'! I can still recall the bemused way in which she said 'but they're really very nice'.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Yes, the ironic thing is that in Wimbledon about forty years ago, the very idea of having a Pole for a neighbour would have been considered most exotic and regarded somewhat dubiously by a few residents. But let them get their feet under the British suburban table and they have the cheek to complain about Johnny Foreigner and thanking the Lord that they live in a 'white' neighbourhood.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]


Londoners would tell you that Wimbledon was always considered suburban, it's not Central London, it's practically the Home Counties. Reminds me of the way Richmond is part of London now, but to me it will always be in Surrey. The suburbs of London were always middle class, middle brow, middle of the road and predominantly white, Church of England - typical leafy suburbia and lovely but a bit bland and boring. Central London has been completely different for decades now.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]


I think you've just proved that not only do you not live in London, but you're not very familiar with the city. There is no such thing as a 'white neighbourhood' in London and there is no correlation between the affluence of a London district and the ethnic make-up of its population. Those are American concepts.

Due to the particular kind of social housing policy pursued by the British government for decades after WWII there is a social and ethnic mix in every Borough of London. In a single street of spacious Victorian villas you can have a postman living alongside a Baronet. The Baronet owns his flat, the postman rents his from the Council or a Housing Association. Or you can have a very large house in an affluent area like Hampstead, divided up into bedsits and inhabited by international students, lowly civil servants etc. whilst next door you have a stockbroker. That's just how it is. At least 20% of housing in any part of central London will be local authority/subsidized.

Even if you look at an area like Notting Hill Gate, you can pay a fortune for a villa in Pembridge Gardens but the moment you step out on to the Portobello Road which is your local shopping district you will encounter your Afro-Caribbean neighbours. The only 'white' neighbourhoods that I can think of off the top of my head are Jewish enclaves like Golders Green.

Admittedly, there are areas of London where the Muslim population if that's what you're thinking of is only about 10% but even those areas are not 'white' because there are plenty of brown and black skinned people living there who are not Muslim. I remember years ago for example Holland Park was full of rich Africans and Arabs, also loads of Arabs in St John's Wood back then.

Work / Theft and racism at a workplace in Poland [3]

Go to a manager and ask what the protocol is for reporting a theft. Then just report the bare facts that you had an item go missing at work. Don't accuse her directly. You'll find that if she is 'on the thieve' as our London friends might say, things may go missing from other people and eventually the trail will lead to her.

That's what happened in an office I worked in years ago. I only learned that people were having things nicked when I was called into the manager's office and asked whether I'd had anything go missing or felt that my belongings had been interfered with. As it turns out I hadn't. But by the end of a day of interviews they'd found the guilty party and he was sacked on the spot. He was a real 'butter wouldn't melt in his mouth' type too, all collar and tie and yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir, so you never can tell.

Oh and I just remembered another one. I had a summer job in a shop and the security guard was a plain clothes guy and had to watch the shop floor when the sales girl went to lunch and was supposed to call her if there was a customer. (The shop had three floors). Anyway he was serving the customers and taking the money for the items, but he'd pretend the till was broken, say he was the manager and there was no problem if they needed to return it, then pocket the money. He was tumbled when a customer actually did try to return an item and came in with no receipt and asked for the manager only to be met by the real manager! And he was a religious, born again something-or-other whose excuse was he was taking the money to give to the church!!

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


And they've done it. Thus endeth the drama. Last week they pushed through a bill that allows the dismissed judges to return to work.

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]

Valerie, are you saying that your great-grandmother's maiden name was Barnawich but that she signed herself Thomas when she got married?


Is it possible that Annie Thomas, her mother, after arriving in the USA, remarried a man with the surname Thomas and Mary adopted it?

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

And I scored slightly to the right of Barack Obama :))

I probably would have scored further right but for the fact that some of the questions were a bit vague so I gave the neither agree nor disagree option on those. Hope other people here do the quiz, we need a bit of fun round here. However, I am least like Donald Trump, thank God for that!

Law / Lawyer familiar with EU law needed (to sue my employer in Poland) [65]

That's an original way of describing it - very good!

Btw I don't know if you've seen this but it might be useful to you:

iclg.com/practice-areas/employment-and-labour-laws-and-regulations/poland

It has a section about discrimination, but nothing about harrassment which appears to be what you feel you suffered. It also discusses how you can bring a case and says that it can take between 6 months and 2 years to get a decision.

Law / Lawyer familiar with EU law needed (to sue my employer in Poland) [65]


Who's the 'half' member? Which country is that?

Law / Lawyer familiar with EU law needed (to sue my employer in Poland) [65]


Anybody can be offered a job anywhere in the world but what YOU have as an EU citizen is the right to relocate to any country in the EU or the EEA (of which Norway is a member). Once there, you can look for work. You don't need a job offer already secured in order to move there. You don't need permission to live there, nor do you need permission to work there. You have that legal right.


We were not forced to do anything. We voted 'no' the first time because there were grey areas in the Treaty which we, the people, were unsure of. The issues were mainly retaining our military neutrality and retaining control of our abortion laws. The text of the Treaty was changed to give us the guarantees and the matter was put to the vote a second time and the people of Ireland voted yes. In fact we were the only EU country where the Treaty was truly democratically passed as we were the only nation of Europe where the people voted to ratify it. That's because the constitution of Ireland cannot be changed without the consent of the Irish people - and that's democracy at work.

Law / Lawyer familiar with EU law needed (to sue my employer in Poland) [65]



It's your 'meaningless' EU citizenship which allows you the freedom to live and work in London on the same terms as a British person. So it's certainly not an empty word for you.

Law / Lawyer familiar with EU law needed (to sue my employer in Poland) [65]


You can only sue a state body of an EU country through the European Court of Human Rights. You cannot sue an individual or a company.

Law / Lawyer familiar with EU law needed (to sue my employer in Poland) [65]

You can't file a case with the European Court of Human Rights against a private, commercial entity.

Classifieds / English/Polish speaking Canadian looking for work as Electrician in Poland [26]


You must live in a small town - or else you have a time machine and are living back in the 1990s :)) The OP plans to move to Warsaw. I seriously doubt that anybody in a government office in Warsaw is going to be swayed by a Cappuccino these days. They probably buy one every morning on the way to work.


Warsaw has been a giant construction site for decades now. So yes, there is plenty of building going on.

News / An EU army. Impact on Poland [155]


Those most recently removed had caused no bother or threat to national security during the years since the fall of Communism. Those who were retained back in the 90s were needed in order to keep the army functional because an army has to have trained, experienced personnel in its adminstration, otherwise it will be joke, a mess like the African dictatatorships where you have an undisciplined rabble calling itself an army.

What's happening under PIS is that loyalty to the Party, rather than relevant skills, qualifications and experience, is becoming the main criteria for making appointments to positions of importance in all areas of public and social administration. It's basically Soviet politics.

Study / Good cheap course to learn Polish in Warsaw [44]

IKO, the Institute of Polish for Foreigners in Warsaw has intensive three week courses, five mornings a week for three weeks for about 1,500 zl.

iko.com.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Schedule-for-intensive-courses-winter-2019.pdf

iko.com.pl/

News / An EU army. Impact on Poland [155]

Not to mention the fact that the PIS purge of the military meant the loss of a lot of experienced senior officers.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]


If you're talking about governing a country you need rules in the form of laws. This is earth, not Paradise. Utopia, where everybody conforms to a philosophical ideal is not going to happen. Poland is a Christian country. A good Christian is thoughtful and considerate of others. He doesn't wake his neighbours up at 2am by drilling and hammering, yet it happens in Poland all the time. Therefore we need a law that sets a reasonable timeframe each day during which such work can be carried out and that law needs to be enforced.


If you want to know about Ireland and the Irish education system there's plenty of information on the internet, but the answer to your question is 'no'. Firstly, Ireland s an overwhelmingly centrist country and secondly the education system is still largely under the patronage of the Catholic church. If anything, teachers in Ireland tend to be a fairly conventional bunch.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]



That's one of the best points you've ever made on this forum Delph - brilliantly put.

I had to mess with your wording a bit to fit the quote in - sorry :)

As teachers, we both know, that you need frameworks for communities to live by. Otherwise it's exhausting and unhealthy for everybody.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]


Mmmm well now, Carson was a Unionist Lyzko and we certainly don't need more of those! I think Collins would be quite happy with the direction Ireland has taken in some respects and he'd definitely be pro the EU. He was very much a modern man in his way of thinking compared to De Valera. My granny was in the womens' auxuilliary corps of the Old IRA as we call it and she had Collins to thank for the fact that women were properly trained in the use of arms etc. He insisted on it, whilst Dev wanted them in the kitchen baking soda bread :) and yet she idolized Dev, absolutely loved him.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

"No we didn't"
"Yes you did - you invaded Poland!"

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Don't know about the Walisians, but the Scots didn't really retain their language any more than the Irish did. Knowledge of the language remains and some people can speak it but it isn't really used in an every day context. Of course it was only ever the Highland Scots who spoke Gallic but anyway.........there are songs in the Scottish and Irish tradition about the loss of the language. Here's an English translation of a Scottish lament for the Gallic tongue:

In the place of Gàidhlig is the foreigners'language
And the Gaidhealtach, cradle of heroes
Is today the land of majors and colonels.

Pass down to us the golden candlesticks
And into them put the white wax candles
Light them up in the mourning room
Of the wake house of the Gael's old language

Although Ireland has a much smaller population than Scotland, our form of the Gaelic tongue is far more widely spoken there than Gallic is in Scotland mainly because we managed to revive it after the departure of the English. If we'd remained part of the UK it would quite probably be virtually gone by now.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]


Well, looking at the history of the US, I'd say violently, especially with the population being as heavily armed as they are. There would certainly be some degree of violence, if not an out-and-out civil war. I think we, the human race, tend to forget that in our time on this earth, we are living what will become our history. It may seem unthinkable that the US could have another civil war and break apart, but then in 1920 the world thought that WWI had been 'the war to end all wars'. Nothing lasts forever. However, we have now wandered into dangerous territory as we've started discussing the good ole US of A, of which we already have enough and plenty to spare on this forum!