Love / Getting married in Poland (papers stating we are eligible to get married?) Certificate of no impediment. [24]

Got married to a Polish girl in Lodz in 2008. Harry has covered it off quite well to be fair.

It was difficult for us as we are living in Ireland (though soon to emigrate to Lodz) and there was a hell of alot of getting official documents etc translated but it was largely ok aside from the incredible amounts of red tape Polish authorities seem to enjoy so much.

Probably the most difficult for us was the confusion caused by the different standards applied in Ireland to naming conventions (it's William on my Birth Cert but Billy on my passport and tax records as that's the name I go by, and is recognised as such by most English speakers) . There was no problems in Ireland with this as it's common practice but (understandably) it caused huge problems when in Poland. Eventually had to get my original passport cancelled and replaced with new version with both William and Billy on it. Irish passport office had a good laugh at that one apparently.

Anyway with regards notification of no impediment, that's not just a Polish requirement - it's generally required in most countries to avoid bigamy. it may not be known by the same name but would be surprised if the embassy could provide nothing at all.

Best of luck with marriage anyway. Polish weddings are great craic! But like someone has mentioned, need to negotiate when setting it up!

Love / What are Polish Women like? Just started to date one. [256]

Have never really noticed too much more different about Polish women to be fair. Very good looking but by and large women the world over are the same...completely alien to us men :D

I guess the one thing that stood out for me was the different attitudes to alcohol but that was pretty much it.

News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

Social Welfare is too generous here (Ireland), but that goes for everyone, not just Poles or other EU nationals who come here.

The recession is really beginning to bite here and alot of people look for someone to lash out at-sadly immigrants fit the bill nicely for some and are an easy target. 'Coming over here, stealing our jobs, taking our welfare etc etc'.

It's the same across Europe. There's no denying some Polish have taken advantage and rip off the system, and seem to feel no shame in doing so but they're the smaller element of a much wider problem that affects everyone here, Irish and Pole alike. But when emotions run this high, logic tends to go out the window. It hasn't helped when it's been publicized how much money has been taken from the Irish economy by Polish and sent back to families etc in Poland, hundreds of million of euro in the last decade. At face value I can understand why people get upset at that ....but considering our history of immigration over the past hundred years, and the fact the Irish did the exact same thing when huge numbers of us emigrated to the US, Canada, Australia, Britain etc I really can't see how we can complain too much about it.

The worrying thing is that with the economies etc in Europe sliding, people become more narrow minded and extreme in their views - resulting in that Dutch site. Stupidty as they say, knows no nationality.

Love / What are Polish Women like? Just started to date one. [256]

It's something my Polish friends noticed when here when came here first (ended up marrying one of them, still not sure how it happened but worked out ok!)

A large percentage of younger women can get pretty messy when out in club (drink that little bit too much, fall around etc). It's far from being the majority but still a large enough percentage to be visible in comparison to most other nationalities. Never really notced myself, was only when it was pointed out that kinda looked at it objectively. Not that I really cared either way!

Love / Do Irish / British guys like Polish girls? [138]

Generally find the Irish accent increases in some emigrants the longer they are away from home :D

As for Irish men liking Irish women, I married one so I guess so in my case. As long as you understand sarcasm and don't get easily offended you'll be fine ;)

The problem with Americans is that they are a mongrel race (don't mean that in an offensive way, just that have a very enthically diverse background which merged in a very short timeframe). To give an example, I was in Ohio with work few years ago for Paddy's Day. Lost count of the number of Americans who came up telling me they were one quarter Irish, half Polish and quarter Italian etc...friendly people though, had a really enjoyable time.

News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

Considering Englands tendency to go around invading countries where they weren't wanted, I'm constantly surprised by their unhappiness at people from these self same countries coming to England...or complain about immigration ruining their culture and diluting their Englishness (all the while planning to become ex-pats in Costa del Sol)

OK that's somewhat tongue in cheek, and not applicable to Poland but it's an attitude that's always puzzled me.

There's a few alternative ways of looking at it though Athelstan

a) those Poles need to live somewhere , buy food, pay tax, socialize etc, all contributing to the economy.
b) English (and us Irish) are quite insular, we don't take advantage of the opportunities provided in other countries. Oth nations do it, so what's stopping us? Fear of change? Fear of failure?

c) Wilders and his ilk are idiots.

To put this Wilders stance into context, quantified research from the University of Rotterdamn have found his claims that mass immigration from Eastern Europe has hit the economy to be completely false. Business leaders in Holland have also expressed concerns that his attitude and the publicity around this site will actually cost the country jobs as multinational companies reconsider their position. It's also worth noting that several southern states in the US have implemeted the type of draconian anti immigrant laws Wilder believes in....and it's devastated the economy, costing billions of dollars and leading to all sectors of business pushing for a repeal of these laws. Wilders and his friends in the BNP are using scare mongering to try and whip up a frenzied support for their viewpoint and to win votes. It's appalling.

I feel or your son - members of my family have lost their jobs with the recession here and are in danger of losing their house as a result. That's due more to the stupidity and short sighted nature of our government when it came to prudent financial controls than immigration. Likewise in the UK.

Real Estate / Mortgages in Poland while living and working in the UK? [20]

How did it go Markus?

I was in a similar situation as yourself with exception I'm Irish and both my wife and I were working in Ireland when applied

We got a mortgage eventually with Nordea (only other real alternative was Deutsche Bank) but it was an incredibly long drawn out process and we ended up having to to give my wife's mother power of attorney to act on our behalf given the number of documents that needed to be lodged and signed - usual multiple versions of each as they either misplaced copies or took so long to process that they were too old by the time they got to them! All this by the way while having owning the site whose value was around 1.5 times the size of the mortgage...

Took about five months to get it but we got there eventually. In a way it;s a frefreshing change to see banks actually be careful but Nordea took it to an extreme.

If you have any particular questions sure give me a PM and can see if can help!

News / Should countries be boycotted for offending Poles? [60]

Foreigner4 - valid points.

Just taking a few of them - Sins of our fathers is offset somewhat by the the fact that it's those who complain the most about how England is becoming less English, and that the foreigners are taking all the jobs who are the very same who display such pride in the 'Empire' and moan about how England is no longer the power it was etc etc.

It's a minority to be sure, but sadly quite visible abroad any time I've been holidays. The rhetoric from the likes of Wilders and the BNP doesn'r really help anyone aside from stirring up xenophobia by playign on peoples perceptions and fears as opposed to facts. It is gratifying to see though that the majority seem to reject such extremism but not in as large numbers as they once did perhaps.

Regarding Dutch Business concerns, I can understand why it can be said they are looking after their own interests. After all they are in business to make a profit, not for the public good. If you take the Southern states of the US however, who enacted the type of contraversial immigration bill Wilders would like to bring in, it hit everybody hard. Both small and big business suffered and the local economy was badly hit with for example crops left rotting in fields as the labour who had previously harvested them were gone. It also had a PR impact as executives from Japan who were due to invest heavily in a car plant there had second thoughts purely based on the nature of the bill.

I don't agree with you with regards the Chinese comment. Poland has signed up to the EU with all that entails (free movement etc) and is receiving hundreds of millions of EUR in EU subsidies as a result, money which is creating jobs for Poles in a variety of areas, not least construction as the infrastructure is improved. Social Welfare rates are very low in Poland as well, so it's unlikely to suffer from the 'welfare tourism' that some countries have to deal with. Plus, similar to us Irish, it would be difficult for the Poles to complain about immigration when so many have emigrated themselves.

Immigration is a sensitive topic, there's no doubt about it. From an economic perspective, there are benefits which are easily forgotten. Immigrants need homes, food, drink etc to survive all of which must be paid for, which involves spending money in the local economy.

Typically, large numbers of unskilled immigrants are involved in areas where local workers have not been seriously interested in (hell, huge numbers of English and Irish go to Oz for a year out to do something similar, like harvesting fruit etc). This was something noted in the study carried out by the University of Rotterdam.

The number of skilled workers, while a lesser number have also had a role to play as in a srong economy there is typically a deficit in many areas whereby the number of qualified local workers are not enough to fill the economies requirement.

Perhaps a key issue is that people seemed quite happy with immigrants doing these jobs when the economy is good (doing jobs no one else really wanted for little money, resulting in lower service costs for the wider community)... but when the economy goes downhill, it suddenly raises an ethical question.

From a cultural perspective, I can more readily understand peoples' fears I guess. An influx of immigrants from a different culturual or religious background may have a detrimental impact if they refuse to integrate and accept the laws and standards of the society around them.

History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

To be fair the Poles fought hard in a number of theaters (including Brit inspired disaster Market Garden, despite having raised valid concerns) only to be betrayed by their Allies to Stalin. Must have been a bitter pill to swallow for those Polish pilots who did fight in the Battle of Britain. Granted at least the Brits did feel uncomfortable with it.

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

What is it about the English that makes people think we want them? *amused* shitloads of ex-pats in Ireland and Spain etc where they helped drive house prices up for the locals.

As for taking all the jobs, as has been said, they largely took jobs the locals were too lazy to take when times were good. Somebody had to do them, so why not the Poles? Now that your economy has gone to he'll, suddenly this becomes a problem eh?

Thank god your average English person are as decent a people as you can find and despise the BNP. Otherwise I think we'd be happy to see England leave Europe too.....preferably for somewhere off the coast of the Antarctic?

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Milky the 1 in 5 is inaccurate by the way ;) but agree frikkiew is a Nazi. Well, could call him many things really but Nazi is about right. How anyone who supports the BNP can claim to talk about dignity is beyond me.

Am building a house just outside Lodz at the minute. Big enough as I never thought to convert square meters to the square feet I am more familiar with! Mortgage as percentage of salary is much lower than it would have been in Ireland. Worth noting though that our house is surrounded by bloody mansions that put many of the affluent regions of Dublin to shame, so there's definitely money here somewhere :D

The thing I've noticed here is the contrast between the wealthy and the poor in Poland, often side by side. Looking at Lodz its got a gigantic modern shopping centre Manufactura where the prices were enough to make me cough, certainly no cheaper than Ireland for most things and indeed more expensive for many. Massive carpark full of newish cars outside it yet ten minutes walk away you can find yourself in streets where apartments are boarded up or look ready to collapse yet people are still living there. It's making big strides though, must be said.

Poland's problem from an export side is that external economies are weak therefore demand is weak. Unsure if internal demand will be enough to keep everything ticking over

Cambridge

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

Tosser is hardly best of comebacks. Have said it elsewhere but am curious why Brits have such an aversion to traveling themselves to find work? That's not a slight in any way, am just curious.

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

Language barriers exist elsewhere too however while poorer is perhaps not the right classification, rather standard of living. Is the standard of life better on dole in the UK than working abroad? Plus if millions of UK citizens are indeed working abroad what's the difference between that and others going to the UK?

Same questions are being asked here in Ireland so it's a topical question

History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

Actually Harry Polish were heavily involved in Market Garden and suffered badly, coming under intense German fire as they landed. To make a difficult situation worse, unfortunately the RAF messed up when dropping the Polish supplied leaving them in a perilous position. Ultimately they were forced to retreat suffering between 20-25 per cent casualties. They took even more when being forced to row across the Rhine under heavy fire when a combined British / Polish engineer element failed to put in place a temp bridge. Despite taking serious losses the Polish brigade eventually managed to get 200 men across to reinforce the 1st airborne.

The Polish commander, Gen Sosabowski subsequently volunteered the Polish Brigade for an all out assault on German positions but was turned down. Instead the Poles shielded the 1st airborne as they retreated, yet again suffering heavy losses as a result. By the end of the operation, Polish units had suffered 30-50 per cent losses, the majority due to poor planning by Allied High Command. Disgracefully, Monty was to push much of the blame on Sosabowski for the failure for Market Garden, despite the fact the general was one of the few who pointed out the critical risks entailed prior to the which whole thing going badly wrong. Not quite sure where you get your facts but worth revisiting. Market Garden was a farce, largely due to Monty's over inflated ego.

Happy to pm list of books etc on the subject

History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

Source for failing to turn back? Yet to come across it in any of the books have read on it so would be good to read up on that element. It's true some were forced to turn back due to a mixture of bad weather and unexpected Luftwaffe activity.

And yes, the heavy losses by the Poles and indeed the entire mission was largely due to Monty's ego ( he admitted afterwards himself he had been over optimistic). Hell, senior Allied commanders had ignored warnings that many of their comms units had proven faulty in the run up to the battle while also blissfully ignoring warnings from their meteorological services that sunspot activity was expected which would further hamper communications. They sent in lightly armed paratroopers with inadequate if any anti-Armour weaponry into a firefight where there was every possibility of encountering Tigers etc. All this while completely underestimating the fighting ability of the Wehrmacht and SS forces in the region. So yeah, would say that Allied High Command had a bigger part to play. It was a complete and utter disaster which helped contribute to the war dragging on into 1945.

History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

Cheers thanks, will see if I can source it.

History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

As compared to the English who stayed at home over the past 800 years? If only they had eh

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

And what is said it you aim to do as matter of interest? Join the thugs in the BNP?

History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

Topic has evolved somewhat from the original post

History / A little reminder for those Brits that ***** about Poles [143]

Know more you apparently if you think it was well planned. Started relatively well but rapidly descended into farce.

As for 17pdrs. , how many had they on the ground? Nowhere nearly enough.

Losses were heavy on all sides, have not disputed that fact, if anything tallies with my point it was a disaster, mainly due to Monty's inability to fight anything other than a set piece battle, poor communication with the Brits and the US command in advance of the entire operation and the underestimating of the forces opposing them. The Allies fought bravely, a factbi've never disputed so save your rant about your ancestors. Some of mine fought on the Allied side as well in both wars but as that's not relevant to the discussion, like yours, why bring them up (I'm Irish not sure if you copped)

If you'd bothered do to read my posts in your entirety you might understand the points made, if not happy to pm them using smaller words and bullet points.

And imagine that.....Poles who wanted to fight in Warsaw...hmm who would have thunk it

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

I'm guessing the Daily Mail :D

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

You both know that mass migration and immigration is a constant? Neolithic, Celt, Picts, Saxons, Jutes, Angles, Romans, Normans etc etc all arrived in your country at various times bringing their own culture, values, language and impacting the native economy in their own way. Nothing is static, everything is always in flux.

Of course you're paying for the sins of your fathers in a way, as the comedian Tommy Tiernan put it, its a bit rich for a nation to complain about immigration when by and large the immigrants have been coming from countries they invaded or exploited in the past. Karma is a *****..

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

Strange, for an English person your command of the language is worrying. I'm sure you're trying to make a point but as with most of your posts, haven't a clue what is. Apart from a generic rant of course.

Genealogy / Being ashamed of Polish ancestry? [156]

Have yet to come across a Pole who is ashamed of being Polish. Have met alot who are ashamed of certain elements of Polish life (Politics, Radio Maria, the neverending red tape etc)..but not of being Polish. Quite a difference..

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

The example you have given is hardly a job where they can hardly be exploited for two pounds an hour therefore there is a deeper reason ie unwilling to work for a certain rate of pay, didn't sell themselves well in the interview or frankly weren't as reliable.

I work in large multinational company in Dublin. About one third of employees are foreign. Not because they are cheaper, but because they are better than the locals whlo applied and didn't a job. Where is the problem with that? Should a company employee staff of a lesser standard simply because they are local? What business would last long in that scenario?

Likewise what's stopping Brits get jobs ahead of foreigners? What's the exact reasons? They work for less? OK then why are wage expectations so high for locals? They have the same options as immigrants.

It's a sad fact that in the UK (as here) that immigrants did and do jobs the locals are too damn lazy to do. Unemployment is a problem in both places as are those parasites who live off Social Welfare by choice. The overwhelming majority of these are locals however. Personally would like to see major initiatives in this are ie back to work schemes or cutting those off who can't be arsed to look for a job (local and immigrant alike)

UK, Ireland / Unemployed Poles in Ireland : a crash course in milking the system [323]

That's not actually true Oxon. Trust me, as an Irish person emigrating in the autumn, and as someone who has paid tens of thousands in tax over the past ten years, I've looked into it.

There's very strict rules with regards paying out Child Welfare. It's gotten even stricter of late into the bargain.

UK, Ireland / Unemployed Poles in Ireland : a crash course in milking the system [323]

If both parents and child are not domiciled in the country, child benefit is not payable in Ireland but the EU country where you are residing.

"Residence of the Child

The child must be ordinarily resident in the State. This requirement is deemed to be satisfied in cases of:

members of the Irish Defence Forces or the Irish Civil Service serving abroad,
volunteer development workers, or
persons temporarily employed abroad by an Irish employer and paying Irish social insurance contributions."

"If you are an EU/EEA citizen or a Swiss national and work in a country covered by EU Regulations, the country you work in usually pays Child Benefit even if your family is living in another country."

Food / Decent Polish Ale or Lager? [27]

Have been curious about the honey beer. Have tried Krupnik and liked it but unsure about how it'd go with beer...

UK, Ireland / WHAT IS IT ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE THAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT UK WANTS THEM? [309]

Thank Christ most Brits I know are down to earth and more open minded. The thought of Nick Griffin in power is enough to make me feel distinctly unwell

Food / Decent Polish Ale or Lager? [27]

Cheers Harry. For a country that drinks as much as we do, the choice of beers in a typical Irish pub is very limited so should be interesting.