News comes to me of an article in the Irish Times (Dec 8th) about the plight of Poles in Ireland. It seems that many of the estimated 120,000 emigrants have been lured there by unrealistically optimistic stories about Ireland in the Polish media. (These stories started before Poland’s referendum on joining the EU, when Ireland was constantly held up as the great success story of the EU — the grim 1980s having conveniently been forgotten. President McAleese even graced Poland with a visit days before the referendum.) Much to nobody’s surprise, the streets in Ireland are not paved in gold and there is some bad feeling.

But back to the Irish Times article. Its author, Marcella Gajek, sought out some more positive opinions about Ireland and found them issuing from the mouth of “Polish roofer Chris Bujak (25)” who has been in Ireland for a year and is just doing just fine � much better than in his previous “10 years working in Germany.”

Those of you less familiar with the Polish language might be interested to learn that “bujać” means to lie, fib, make up stories. (“Bujda” means “eyewash.”) “Bujak” is a genuine Polish surname and there is no suggestion that the roofer is a spoofer but 14 is a very young age at which to emigrate in search of work.