Many Poles to stay on despite Great Irish Depression

DUBLIN — There are so many Poles in Ireland that the Irish police have begun taking basic lessons in Polish. At least now they will not make the mistake of recording the name of errant Polish drivers as “Prawo Jazdy.” Some 50 summonses in that name were issued for driving offenses before it dawned on them that the words were Polish for "driving license."

Irish people have become used to the fact that the mechanic at the local car repair shop or the assistant in the coffee shop speaks with a Polish accent. During the boom years of the Celtic Tiger, up to half a million immigrants arrived in Ireland to find a better life, and they now make up one in 10 of the population born outside the country. The largest single group consists of Polish nationals, whose westward trek to Ireland in the last two decades has been a phenomenon of post-Cold War Europe.

Now, with the Irish economy shrinking at an unprecedented rate, many Poles are trickling back home on the cut-price airlines that brought them here, and the rate of new arrivals has slowed dramatically.

What? Do people expect every person who came here during the Celtic Tiger to go back home? Some will go, some will stay.....