WITH THE pews brimming to capacity and the aisles so tightly packed that stragglers could make it no further than the porch, St Audoen’s Church in Dublin yesterday offered scant support for the suspicion that an exodus of Poles is under way.
President Mary McAleese was the special guest at the spiritual centre of the city’s Polish community on High Street yesterday. It was, said Fr Jaroslaw Maszkiewicz to resounding applause, a chance to welcome the President “as you have made us welcome to your country”, but there was no mistaking how thickly the new uncertainty hung in the air. “Of course now there is a crisis – this recession,” he would say towards the end of the Mass. “Polish people don’t know what to do – stay here or go back to Poland. It’s a difficult time for everybody, but all of us pray to God.”
Five Polish Masses cater to the conspicuously young congregation at St Audoen’s every Sunday, but though the numbers have held up, signs of altered times abound. The sight of men with backpacks slung over their shoulders, en route to work, is rarer than it was. And yesterday, among the ads for second-hand cars and rooms in need of a tenant on the notice-board outside the church, was a poster for “Recession bus tours”, with return trips from Dublin to Newry at €40. “Free delivery of shopping right to your doorstep!”
At every turn, there are stories of friends who have left and others weighing their diminishing options. “A few of my friends have gone back. The rent is high for a house, and if you don’t have a stable job, you have to go back,” says Piotr Wisniewski, who works in a toolmaker’s company. So far the business has held up well – people are quicker to repair than to replace these day – but Wisniewski picks up on a shift in the mood. “People were more hopeful before than now. Two years ago, they used to feel like Ireland is some kind of a chance for a better life. Now they feel like what was good here is finished.”
For others it’s not so clear-cut. Landscaper Kamil Soltys and his wife – both from Krakow in southern Poland and now living in Celbridge – decided a few months ago to return home, but just as they were about to hand in their notice, they began to hear it was every bit as bad back home. They opted to stay put and try to sit out the recession.
“I got a promotion a few times, so now my situation is stable. I don’t feel this recession at the moment, and it’s the same for my wife – she works in laundry for the last few years,” he says.
“At the moment, it’s exactly the same in Poland. So we’re going to wait and see. Maybe we’ll decide to stay here for another five years, who knows. Maybe we’ll stay for good.”
Few buildings speak of the influence of the city’s Polish community as eloquently as St Audoen’s. A church where attendances had been waning for decades has been restored and revitalised by the community since 2004, and it now houses a Polish school and a social centre for the emigrés as well.
Fr Maszkiewicz’s advice is sought more often than ever these days, mostly from middle-aged men who have suddenly found themselves idle after never struggling for a day’s work since stepping off the plane. He is at pains to stress the sincerity of the Irish welcome, but admits to worrying about whether more competition for jobs might not show people at their most hospitable.
When the Mass has ended, the President and Mr McAleese mingle with some of the worshippers, reminding them at one point that “we’re not two communities – we’re one community . . . and please God we’ll get through these tough times together”. Among those she greets is Kate Jaworska, a mother of three young children who works as a language support teacher at a school in west Dublin.
“A lot of people are losing their jobs, so we’re not feeling very safe at the moment, but we try to hold on anyway,” Jaworska says. “We say, as long as we have jobs, there’s no point in going back. I would love to stay here for good. The children started school here and they feel very well. I feel they have become part of Irish society. It would be difficult to move, so hopefully – fingers crossed – we’ll stay.”