Life / Womans day in Poland? [242]

How kind :)

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Life / Womans day in Poland? [242]

This Women's Day lark is a Commie thing but as I'm not only a woman, but a lady, I smile and say 'thank you' when wished the happiness of the day by poor, deluded foreigners.

We don't take any notice of it in Ireland :))

Life / Womans day in Poland? [242]


No reason why it should. It's not part of your culture. It's the ancient Irish Harvest festival with strong connections to our spiritual pre-Christian past and our mythology. Why on earth would you be celebrating it in Germany?

@ Bobko, sadly, I don't have time to address your nonsense now. I might find a moment over the weekend. Have a lovely evening everybody!

Life / Womans day in Poland? [242]

Of course it is! Surely you knew that?

nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/inside-irelands-gate-to-hell-that-birthed-halloween

Food / Taste of food in Poland vs other countries [186]


They're a cheap and quick source of protein. As Jon says they're for kids - or students. They're actually an American invention. I think a lot of adults continue to eat them as a kind of comfort food/nostalgia thing remembered from childhood. They're no worse than the tins of paprykasz or rather revolting pasztet you find by the thousand on Polish supermarket shelves.

News / European News and Poland Thread 3 [1064]

To let what happen?

Life / Womans day in Poland? [242]

@Bobko, quoting Lenin and Marx on women, seriously? A pair of self-indulgent lay-abouts who never did an honest day's graft in their lives. It's always the intellectuals who couldn't find their own arse with both hands, who seem to be the experts on 'the worker'. As for men theorizing about what's best for women, here's a radical idea - ask the women.


It's called guising. In Ireland going door to door dressed up is not unique to Hallowe'en but most of the other occasions are specific to particular regions eg. in Kerry they still celebrate the festival of Imbolc. There are four ancient Irish festivals, Imbolc, Lughnasa, Bealtaine and Samhain (Hallowe'en) which carried on and were woven into Christian festivals. At Imbolc a straw doll, the Brideog is made. She represents St Brigid. A group of men carry her from house to house and they come in and have to perform a song or dance, they usually have musical instruments with them and then they get something in return, in the old days some money, but now a bit of cake or a sip of whiskey or something like that or maybe a donation for a charity or local community project.

"They came over the threshold,
the Biddy Boys, with a straw doll
almost as big as myself, looking for money.
One had a mask with the face of the devil.
A melodeon started up. I was pulled
from my chair at the table and twirled."

"Away with youse now, and your Brideog,
my father said, giving them a handful
of coins. God bless you and may St. Brigid protect
you and yours, they sang from the door.
When the devil blew me a kiss
a wind raised the rushes from the floor."

Incidentally my granny played the melodeon!

News / European News and Poland Thread 3 [1064]


Well he was born there. And he is one of the Establishment. Went to an old and distinguished public school, (that's a private school, I know it's confusing), Oxford, then Stanford in the USA. Pity there aren't a few more Brits like him. The more educated, cultured people a nation can produce, the better.

Life / Womans day in Poland? [242]


And I'm delighted. I myself would have voted No to both proposed changes in the Referendums. People voted 'no' for an assortment of reasons. A lot of people, including myself, felt that the replacement clauses were far too vague in their wording and as Irish people have a lot of experience in voting in referendums we won't vote yes for something we're not sure about.

However, more importantly I would also have voted No because I agree with the present wording:

1. In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives
to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.

I absolutely agree with this point. Women do invaluable work within the home. The constitution was written in 1932 and nowadays though most women are working outside the home too, they continue to be the central figure in the home. I like seeing that respected and acknowledged.

2. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged
by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the
home.

Point 2 may seem outdated by modern standards but it is still a model to which we should aspire. I would like to see the wording altered slightly to reflect the times we live in but the bottom line is that women should be given all the supports needed to make it possible for them to remain at home with their children if they wish to do so, especially in the crucial early years. It would be nice to see the government actually act on the promise made in the Constitution instead of simply paying lip-service to the idea.

Life / Womans day in Poland? [242]


Like my maternal great-grandmother who died in childbirth, at the age of 38 after eleven pregnancies? Eleven children in sixteen years of marriage. The poor woman. If you really think that she or countless other women like her had those children for 'gratification' you are beyond help.

Food / Polish dishes with foreign origin in the name [91]


You do if you're properly literate. The etymology of words should be respected, not simplified. The dumbing down of everything ........... make things simple and people become simpletons.

Food / Polish dishes with foreign origin in the name [91]


Yes, I do. It also meant the end of the lovely old Irish script in which people used to read and write the Irish language.

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News / European News and Poland Thread 3 [1064]

Remind me again, when did you last visit Ireland? And Tucker Carlsson - really? He describes Ireland as off the coast of Great Britain and seems to think we're part of the UK. The usual laughable American ignorance about 'Yurp'. Tucker Carlsson knows precisely nothing about Ireland or Irish society.


America is where all this nonsense started in the first place and a good deal of it is from the west coast. Worry about your own problems.

Food / Polish dishes with foreign origin in the name [91]


Not just a font in my opinion as it existed centuries before printing and spread from Ireland to England. It was developed by the Irish monks to transcribe Latin into Irish so they created the diacritics they needed to render the Gaelic eg. the dot over the b to represent the v sound. Also the monks created the spaces between words system that renders text more readable. They started it around the 7th century and it spread to the rest of Europe later.

Food / Polish dishes with foreign origin in the name [91]


I know and that's a bone of contention for some of us :)

These images might interest you. One is of a letter typed on a very rare thing, an old typewriter with the cló gaelach font and the other a child's school exercise book from around 1920. The writing is so beautiful.

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Travel / How to get Polish entry/exit stamps in passport when entering the Schengen area in a country other than Poland [12]


If you're staying for more than a month you can register with the local authority:

welcome.uw.edu.pl/during-your-stay/registration-of-address/

Travel / How to get Polish entry/exit stamps in passport when entering the Schengen area in a country other than Poland [12]


If you're staying in a hotel, you'd have proof. Otherwise you could use any bank statements that show credit/debit card use for the period of your stay. You could also get a mobile/cell phone sim card. You need to show ID/Passport when you register your mobile number. It would prove you were in Poland at that time. You could even set up a doctor's appointment at a private medical service for something simple like a blood pressure check. Then you'd have a record of that. There are lots of ways you can document a visit.

As others have said you can keep tickets etc. If they're e-bookings you can print off the bookings and keep the. A stamp in the passport is not a thing anymore.

Off-Topic / Feeling tired all the time [75]

Robin, are you on any meds for psychological/mental health issues? If so, are you taking them? You shouldn't go off them without medical supervision.

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]

A Thiarna, dein trócaire orainn ............... ach go raibh maith agat :)

And no, they never sold Irish Spring in Ireland!

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]


Why wouldn't they? There are plenty of links between the two nations and while the average Pole wouldn't know the historic connections, Poles generally like Irish people and Irish culture.

Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaoibh go léir to anyone who is celebrating today, wherever you may be, Irish roots or not.

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]

Irish culture I suppose really.

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]


No :)) but I've heard of them.


No, like this:



youtube.com/watch?v=6s8lvnSmISc

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]


And yet he produced a child with a Moroccan woman - incidentally, while still married to his Irish wife. That wouldn't go down well with you at all now, would it? Oh and he was co-founder of and remains very involved with the Dublin-Arabic Film Festival. Not surprising really seeing as he's now living with his former bit-on-the-side.


If I were 'ashamed of my roots' would I be speaking Irish? "Tír gan Teanga, Tír gan Anam".


Yes, the Irish in Montserrat were supposedly not a nice bunch - but no in-depth scholarly work has been produced on the subject with any real detail about they behaved towards the black slaves. Would you like to do it? :)

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]


I didn't even know there WAS a PC one! We wouldn't dream of singing it in Ireland :) The guys performing it were various old friends and associates of Shane McGowan, so they were honouring his memory and definitely wouldn't be cleaning it up for singing in church. Anyway, the priest knew him well.

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]

Why does the cover show people doing Scottish dancing??

Please, let us differentiate between the Irish and the Irish-American (who in fact were a mixed bag of Anglo-Irish, Irish and Ulster-Scots. The early Irish immigrants were both Catholic and Protestant, rich, poor and somewhere in the middle. For the middle and upper class ones, it made obvious sense for them to align with the status quo. For the poorer ones, the indentured servants and labourers, many had the great advantage in those times, of literacy. Being literate and white gave them the chance to elevate themselves in what was a very harsh world. Adapt and survive, then hopefully thrive.

Getting back to the Irishman as opposed to the Irish-American, at what point does one cease to be Irish and become American, taking on all the less savoury attributes of American culture and society? Certainly within one generation there is already a vast difference. Born in America, raised in America, you're American.


I'll let a black man tell you:

"the entire absence of everything that looked like prejudice against me, on account of the colour of my skin-contrasted so strongly with my long and bitter experience in the United States, that I look with wonder and amazement on the transition." (Frederick Douglas, Ireland, 1845)

And I'll leave you with the words of his friend, Irishman, Daniel O'Connell's words to the Irish-Americans:

"Come out of such a land, you Irishmen, or, if you remain, and dare countenance the system of slavery that is supported there, we will recognize you as Irishmen no longer."

Off-Topic / Feeling tired all the time [75]


Have you read his other posts? He's witnessed a nuclear explosion, spoken to Adolf Hitler and today he speculates that 'the government' is cloning people. Have you ever actually met anyone with schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder?? I have, a few people. It's more common than you think. They sometimes feel well while on their meds, think they don't need them, come off them and it doesn't work out well.

Off-Topic / Feeling tired all the time [75]


Real life is a lot more interesting than your nonsense. My sister rented a flat in an old Georgian house in Dublin and she could hear her neighbour having huge rows with his mother - after she got to know him, it transpired that he lived alone. Mother had died some years previously.

I had a similar neighbour who lived in the flat upstairs. He seemed quite normal if you encountered him in the hallway or out on the street. He didn't work but his father owned the building and he sort of acted as caretaker. Anyway, he slept until about lunchtime every day. When I was at home on weekdays I'd hear his alarm go off around midday. Then he's sit up half the night talking to himself - VERY loudly. For some reason he'd affect a New York accent when he did that. Again, it was a conversation between two people, not a monologue.

THEN, there was the lady I met on the train to Wexford ................ I was getting the vibes off her. She was sitting on the other side of the aisle and after a few minutes, we made eye contact and she said 'It's coming, isn't it?' I just knew she meant the end of the world and sure enough she did. Turned out she'd been got at by Jehovah's Witnesses. She actually told me she was schizophrenic but she was taking her meds. I told her that religion should be a comfort, not frighten you and that it didn't sound as if Jehovah was the best option for her if it was upsetting her. She cheered up after that although by the end of the journey she'd decided I was an angel. At least I left her happier than I found her.

News / The Political Circus of Poland [306]

Here's a cheerful piece of news..............

notesfrompoland.com/2024/03/18/polish-government-wants-to-release-20000-prisoners-from-overcrowded-jails/

The general gist of it is that prison reform is needed in Poland - which it is, wouldn't argue with that - but in the usual cheap and not-so-cheerful Polish style, a fast track to reform is to reduce the present numbers by around 25% as quickly as possible. That will alleviate overcrowding.

The daft bint deputy justice minister Maria Ejchart believes that it can work because it does in Norway - Norway! Yes dear, it works in Norway because Norwegian society and social policy couldn't be more different to Poland. What a silly cow.

Wonder what sort of convicts she'll be releasing? Happy days ahead.

Off-Topic / Feeling tired all the time [75]


I didn't express any hate towards you. Quite the opposite. I expressed concern for you. The fact that you can't see the difference between the two might give you some food for thought.

Life / St Patrick's day in Poland [272]


No, he's not. They can't help being annoying. Novi does it on purpose.


That's not true at all. Thanks to the properly designed Single Transferable Vote system of Proportional Representation in Ireland, when we're not happy, we have far more power than Americans to vote out those we don't want and vote in those we do. There's a general election next year in Ireland next year and already the government is changing its tune about migrants but at this stage it's too late to regain ground and they'll be out.

Now, while I'm here I'll take the chance to mention the Irish women who tried to escape from their indentured servitude in Montserrat and were sentenced to 39 lashes apiece on their bare backs. I'm sure Poloniusz would have been happy to administer the lashes, combining his hatred of women and the Irish in one neat package.

Or how about John Scott, an English adventurer who travelled in the West Indies during the Commonwealth, who saw Irish servants working in field gangs with slaves, 'without stockings under the scorching sun'. The Irish, he wrote, were "derided by the n@groes, and branded with the epithet of 'white slaves'"

Speaking of branding, Irish who attempted to escape from their servitude and were caught didn't only get the lash, but were frequently branded with FT. on their foreheads - Fugitive Traitor.

And we mustn't forget that it was the Anglo-Irish Marquess of Sligo, who on arriving in Jamaica as Governor, proceeded to free the slaves and set up schools for them. The first free village of Sligoville in Saint Catherine parish, Jamaica is named after hiim.

Now let's start a thread to talk about serfdom in Poland over the centuries. Imagine to think that whole villages of serfs were sold as a job lot to their new masters. Shocking stuff.