Red carpet rolled out for Polish Ambassador
Nenagh laid out the red carpet for the Polish Ambassador to Ireland when she paid a visit to the town on Thursday last to honour a local teacher who has been praised and awarded for his role in promoting historical links between Ireland and Poland.
Her Excellency Anna Sochańska was accorded a Civic Reception at the Civic Offices by the Cathaoirleach of Tipperary County Council, Cllr Roger Kennedy, who emphasised the strong links between the two countries.
The Ambassador earlier visited Saint Mary's Convent Secondary School where she met with students and staff member Con McGrath, a teacher of History, who has been praised for his work in preserving memories of the Warsaw Uprising.
Mr McGrath, a native of Clonmore, near Templemore, was recently presented with the ‘BohaterON’ Gold award in Warsaw for his work, which involved promotion of the historical links between Poland and Ireland, particularly research into the 1944 uprising.
Mr McGrath conducted English language interviews with almost 50 survivors of the uprising, bringing a greater understanding of this tragic event of the Second World War to a widespread audience, including his students in Nenagh.
“I was just shocked at the real tragedy of Polish history,” he recently told this newspaper. “We think of victory in Europe, and France liberated, but that's not the Polish story. They just swapped Hitler for Stalin.”
The Nenagh schoolteacher was keenly taken by the Warsaw Uprising, a desperate battle between the Polish resistance and Nazi occupiers, which lasted for 63 days and ultimately ended with the complete destruction of the city.
Mr McGrath, who interviewed veterans of the uprising to establish if there were similarities to the Rising in Ireland 1916, said that he wanted to bring a new perspective to people's understanding of how the war ended.
AMBASSADOR'S PRAISE
In the council chamber of the Civic Offices last Thursday Ambassador Sochańska told a gathering of councillors, officials and four representatives of the Polish community in Nenagh, who had gathered to welcome her, that it had been an honour to have visited Saint Mary's Secondary School earlier in the day to learn of the dedicated work of Mr McGrath and his talented students in forging links between the two countries.
“We are all very proud of him in the Polish Embassy and in Poland itself,” said the Ambassador, who went on to mention the “fantastic bilateral links” that existed between Poland and Ireland.
She said the Polish community in Ireland had integrated really well into their adopted country. The two nationalities were so similar, and that made life very pleasant for Polish people coming to here.
In acknowledging praise by Cathaoirleach Roger Kennedy of her country taking in huge numbers of Ukrainians fleeing the war instigated by Russia, the Ambassador said the Polish Government was also very impressed with the manner in which Ireland as a neutral country had reacted so positively towards those forced to uproot due to the conflict.
The Ambassador said that like Polish people, those in this country had a keen sense through their history of what it was like to have “a big brother” on the other side of the border.
She said Ireland, like her country, also had members of its defence forces on active peace keeping duties in Lebanon, which was evidence of the love that existed in both countries for freedom and peace.
The Cathaoirleach, who presented the Ambassador with a scroll and a piece of pottery made by the Cloughjordan based ceramic artist Thomas Woolen to mark her visit, said Ireland had taken in over 70,000 Ukrainian refugees and Poland 3.5 million since the start of the war. Both countries were doing well in looking after all those people fleeing the conflict, which he hoped would end soon.
LOCAL LINKS
He referred to strong links that existed between his own native area of Cashel and Polish people that had visited the South Tipperary town under an initiative of the European Charter of Rural Communities that had been in existence for the past quarter of a century. Some delegates who had visited Cashel as part of the initiative had been so impressed that they had returned to the town and Tipperary to spend holidays.
Leas Cathaoirleach of Nenagh Municipal District, Cllr Phyll Bugler, said there were over 4,000 Polish nationals now living in County Tipperary, which included over 760 who had settled in the Nenagh district. Polish people had integrated very well into the local community and they were making a marvellous contributions to the workforce, communities, and local sports clubs.
Cllr Bugler invited the Ambassador to return on a future date to visit the marvellous tourist amenites in Tipperary. As a Clonmore native herself, she was very proud of fellow parishoner Con McGrath for his work in forging links between both countries and highlighting an important part of Polish history.
Chief Executive of Tipperary County Council Joe MacGrath said it was a great honour for the council that the Ambassador had decided to visit Nenagh. He referred to the extraordinary generosity of Poland in opening up its borders to so many refugees, and he praised Mr McGrath for bringing alive many aspects of the Warsaw Uprising.