The luck of last night’s draw could make things difficult for Ireland at Euro 2012 – all the more reason for fans to make the most of what Poland has to offer
PICTURE THE scene: a balmy summer night, a cobbled old town square with neo-classical facades.
Ireland has just trounced Spain, and you and your friends have finished a celebratory dinner with a few crisp, cool beers at €1.70 a pop. You look around and wonder: what took us so long to get here?
After yesterday’s tough draw, Irish fans should perhaps brace themselves for the worst on the field in Euro 2012. All the more reason, then, to enjoy a long-overdue trip to their Catholic cousins in Poland.
Two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and a decade after Poles began arriving in Ireland, Euro 2012 is the perfect chance to consign the last strips of the iron curtain to the scrap heap of history.
Poland’s Euro 2012 host cities are places of striking contrast: decades of communism have left them rough around the edges, but the city centres have scrubbed up beautifully.
A sizeable Irish emigrant avant garde has already made Poland home. So many Irish now live in Warsaw that it has its own GAA club. The Irish national rugby side have made regular trips to Poland over the last decade to polish up their form in Spala sports camp, near the capital.
After training, the team troop into a cryochamber, where temperatures as low as minus 140 degrees help with muscle regeneration and recovery.
Next summer, Irish soccer fans will have temperature extremes of another kind to cope with: Polish summers are regularly of the 30-degree-plus variety, so sun cream and hats are a must unless the lobster look comes back into fashion.
A word of advice on interaction with the locals: it’s probably best not to get into a late-night, alcohol-fuelled row over whether Ireland or Poland has suffered more in history.
While Ireland had the British, the Famine and the Penal Laws, Poland has spent centuries squeezed between Germany and Russia. Partitioned three times, it vanished from the map of Europe until after the first World War.
A period of national renewal was cut short by the Nazi invasion of 1939, triggering the second World War. Half of the six million people murdered in the Holocaust were Polish. A valiant Warsaw uprising against the Nazis in 1944 lasted an incredible two months, with no outside support, until it was brutally put down.
A second betrayal followed: the Nazis systematically destroyed Polish cities as they retreated, and the Allies abandoned the Polish people to Stalin’s tender mercies.
Four decades of full-on communism followed until a moustachioed electrician, Lech Walesa, finally took on the communist authorities in 1980. With the support of the growing Solidarity movement, he forced a negotiated handover to democracy a decade later.
After its tragic starring role in much of European history, it’s no wonder Poland refers to itself as the “Christ among nations”. British historian Norman Davies went so far as to dub the country “God’s Playground”.
“I think the Poles have a very solid apprenticeship in surviving adversity,” said Mr Davies recently.
That’s a quality the Irish can relate to. Now if only Trapattoni’s side can capture some of that adversity next summer and channel it into triumph.
GDANSK
With the fresh sea breeze, Irish fans will feel at home in the northern port city of Gdansk. Take a pilgrimage to the vast shipyards, where the Solidarity trade union began a campaign in 1980 that eventually ended communist rule across Europe a decade later. The old town is filled with stunning mercantile townhouses and winding streets. Try to pop into the town hall where Irish diplomat Sean Lester served as League of Nations representative in the 1930s, documenting the city’s fall into Nazi hands. A day trip to the nearby pristine Baltic resort of Sopot is worth the effort.
Accommodation could be a problem as, according to Polish media reports, the Irish and Spanish are locked in battle over who can base their camp in the nearby city of Gdynia.
DOs and DONTs
DO
Ask the locals to sing a verse of the popular song I Love You Like Ireland. Preferably after a glass or two of Zywiec or Tyskie beer, two safe choices. To encourage shy Polish singers, try one of the many 10 per cent-proof beers.
Say thank you for the Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa and the bravery of the Polish people, without whom the Berlin Wall might not have fallen and Europe might not have been united.
See if you can work into a late-night conversation how impressive it is that Poland had Europe’s first constitution – in 1791. Best not mention it only held for a year.
DON’T
Call Poland “eastern Europe”. From their perspective, Poland is central Europe. Ireland is in the middle of nowhere.
Make jokes about the Nazi occupation. And don’t, whatever you do, make the mistake that journalists do every year and carelessly call Auschwitz a “Polish” concentration camp.
Be mistaken for English fans. Poles are tired of drunken English stag groups, so don’t get sloshed and moon the locals. Poles love their beer but don’t see the need to binge.
TRAVEL GUIDES
Check out the snappy, sharp “In Your Pocket” guides online for up-to-date tips on hotels, eating out and getting around.
POZNAN
Located on the old Paris-Moscow route, Poznan is three hours from both Berlin and Warsaw, and was once the German city of Posen. Enjoy the atmosphere of the gorgeous old town and visit the museum quarter in the Citadel. The famed Great Escape took place in the town of Zagan, 150km southwest of Poznan.
