A Polish woman who was the subject of a mistranslated article suggesting she was a "welfare tourist" has said she was “shocked” to learn of it and that it was “completely” untrue.
The woman known as "Magda" - which is not her real name - spoke on radio this morning to discuss the article described as “inflammatory” by Polish ambassador to Ireland Marcin Nawrot.
Mr Nawrot said the original article had been inaccurately translated in a report published in the Irish Independent yesterday, citing potential damage to the reputation of Poles living in Ireland.
“I can assure you that people like Magda constitute a very small minority of Poles in Ireland, and are in no way representative of the entire Irish-based Polish community,” he said in a letter. He pointed out that Magda did not describe Donegal in the article as a “shithole”, as had been reported.
Yesterday's article had been reportedly translated from one that originally appeared in Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.
It told of Poles struggling to find work in Ireland and described Magda as saying working for the minimum wage “makes no sense” and that life in Donegal was "a Hawaiian massage".
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s John Murray programme, Magda said things had been “added and changed” in the article and that people who knew her would know straight away that it was “not me”.
If she had read the article believing the words to be those of a Polish girl, she would say “exactly the same thing” as others had said. “If you hate it here and if you think you live in a shithole, go home.”
She was a trained nanny and had been living in Ireland for six years. She said she had worked in the hospitality industry for a couple of years but that jobs were scarce and she had been on the dole for about a year and a half.
Magda said she had done courses, including a Fás course to help her set up a small business. She hoped to have her massage therapy practice up and running by Easter.
“I came for holidays, and I so fell in love with Ireland, with the place,” she said. She had decided to stay because it was “so beautiful” here, even though she had less money than in her previous home and job.
Gazeta Wyborcza features editor Mariusz Szczygiel said the article ran as part of a package presenting both the positive and negative sides of the Polish emigrant experience around Europe. "Since Poles living in Ireland claim all those benefits legally, I see no problem with that," he told The Irish Times.
The article provoked a storm of critical remarks on Gazeta Wyborcza's website.
A Polish woman living in Ireland wrote: “I cannot read the article because I am so mad. . . . We pay high taxes so people like that can have a nice living.”
Separately, Labour Party Senator Jimmy Harte, who yesterday said he would pay for Magda's flight back to Poland, has apologised for remarks he made on Twitter last night following the controversy over the article.
Mr Harte said his Twitter comments were "made in the heat of the moment and went well beyond an acceptable level of online interaction".
"I accept full responsibility for what I said, and fully withdraw my remarks. I unreservedly apologise for any offence they may have caused," he said.
Mr Harte engaged in a number of heated exchanges with other users of the website, telling one person who referred to him a "scumbag senator" that he should "go back up the mountain you came down my friend".
The Senator told Donegal Daily that what he had been quoted as saying in yesterday's article had been a response to what the Polish woman had been reported as saying.
"It is very simple what happened," he said. "A journalist in Poland working for the Irish Independent wrote an article based on an interview given by a Polish lady to a Polish newspaper.
"A local journalist working for the Irish Independent was asked by his editors to get a response from local politicians based on the information that was given to him at the time. I gave my response and I made it clear yesterday that if the translation of the original article was wrong, then I would withdraw my comments and I have done that," he said.
Socialist Party TDs said yesterday's article was "tantamount to incitement to hatred" and that it was "unacceptable" to publish such an inaccurate and "racist" article which would "create a backlash against foreign-national workers".
* A translation of the Gazeta Wyborcza article can be found here.
