I find that non-native English speakers have a problem with understanding 'irony'. They know what it is, (i.e. a dictionary definition), but can't get it when it is used to them face-to-face.
Yet another puff of the hot generalizing air. Why do some people here rarely see a difference between SOME and ALL?
How about googling any of the names on the list below, together with the word irony. Apparently those poets, novelists and playwriters are (or were) masters of irony, black humour and understatement. And they wrote mainly for the Polish audience, so evidently
some Polescan get "irony" when it is used to them face-to-face. I think I am one of them, thank you.
But it's not too late for you yet. You may still learn something.
You may learn that Szymborska was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with
ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality". You may learn that Szymborska frequently employed literary devices such as
irony, paradox, contradiction and understatement, to illuminate philosophical themes and obsessions.
You may learn that Mrożek is best known for his theatrical plays
full of irony and absurdity written during the Communist period.
You may learn why Gombrowicz's writings are beloved in France, where they have long been available in competent translations... that Susan Sontag, in her introduction to the recent English translation of "Ferdydurke", his
ironic masterpiece, calls him brilliant ...
ETC, ETC.
The quick list:
Wisława Szymborska, Witold Gombrowicz, Sławomir Mrożek, Julian Tuwim, Czesław Miłosz, Janusz Głowacki, Ignacy Krasicki, Antoni Słonimski, Cyprian Norwid, Stanisław Lem, ...