Call for Polish to join Irish and English as official languages of State

A Dublin-based Polish magazine has called for Polish to join Irish and English as an official language in Ireland.

Sofasays the Government should adapt to the new reality that Polish is now the most commonly spoken foreign language in the country.

"Irish businesses have already been flexible and adapted to us, now the Government should too," said Wojciech Wrona, publisher of Sofaand a DCU graduate. The magazine, on the market for a year, claims a monthly readership of 40,000.

Making Polish an official language would require a constitutional amendment and hence a referendum, a process Mr Wrona acknowledges would not be guaranteed success.

Until then, he said, the Government could take a pragmatic approach similar to that taken in Texas and other US border states, where Spanish has become the unofficial second language.

State bodies which deal with the public should have Polish-speakers on hand to deal with calls, he suggested, and forms could be made available in Polish. Sometimes when people were identified as Polish, their phone calls were dropped, "the lines are too busy" or no one got back to them, he said.

Mr Wrona said the idea would not hinder the integration of the disputed total of up to 250,000 Poles who lived in Ireland. It would also be a painless first step, he said, for the many Irish people who were interested in learning Polish.

"We all find Ireland a very unique country, the friendliest country to Polish people at the moment," he said.

Mr Wrona's idea, however, is controversial among the Polish community. "The attitude of that man . . . is a clear example of the attitude 'when somebody is giving you a finger you want to get a whole arm'," wrote blogger Krystian Kozerawski yesterday. "[A] mental ghetto with walls built of [the Polish language will make a big harm to Polish emigrants in Ireland sooner or later."

The idea was reported in Poland yesterday. "On some days, we are dealing with more Poles than the Irish," said Tina Clark of the Department of Social and Family Affairs to the Dzienniknewspaper.