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Polish immigrant hits back at inaccurate Hawaiian massage article

Magda denies she is sponging off the Irish state

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Friday, February 3, 2012, 7:55 AM
Updated Friday, February 3, 2012, 10:05 AM

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Queue outside social welfare office in Dublin
Queue outside social welfare office in Dublin
Photo by Google Images


The Polish woman branded a welfare tourist by a leading Irish newspaper has hit back at the allegations and come out fighting.

The woman made her response on radio after the Polish ambassador Marcin Nawrot had leapt to her defence.

Magda – not her real name – was incensed when the article published in the Irish Independent claimed she was happy to give up a minimum wage job on Donegal and sponge off the state.
Ambassador Nawrot then claimed that the article, originally published in a Polish newspaper, had been badly translated and was damaging to relations between Ireland and Poland.

Now the woman has revealed her ‘shock’ at the article and claimed the allegation is ‘completely not true’.

The Irish Independent article was translated from a story in Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper which reported on Poles struggling to find work in Ireland.

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The story quoted Magda as saying working for the minimum wage made no sense and that life in Donegal was ‘a Hawaiian massage’.

She has now confirmed that she said that she had done a government sponsored course in Hawaiian massage.

“Things were added and changed in the article,” she said on national radio. “People who know me would know straight away that it was not me.

“At first I was completely shocked. You don’t know what to think.

“How is it possible for anybody to publish something that is just not true, completely not true and it’s not just misinterpretation, you know, or mistranslation - it’s just a completely different story?”

A trained nanny who has lived in Ireland for six years, Magda described how she had worked in the hospitality industry but jobs are now scarce.

She has been on the dole for 18 months but hopes to have a massage therapy practice up and running by Easter after the State sponsored course.

“I came for holidays, and I so fell in love with Ireland, with the place,” she said.

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14 Comments

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pilib04 | Feb 05, 2012, 06:36 PM EST
Ciara, of course Ireland needs English teachers. I was responding to the suggestion by another poster that Ireland needed more English teachers because of the use of the F-Bomb. As for Irish/Gaelic, I think that is a personal choice particularly for those who live in the Gaeltacht.

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Curitiba | Feb 05, 2012, 05:13 PM EST
Irish, or Gaeilge, Ciara.

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ciaradexy | Feb 05, 2012, 09:44 AM EST
Pilib, of course Ireland needs English teachers. Our incredible literary history is in the English language. We have lots of Irish teachers, theres no shortage. Anyone who wishes to be a primary school teacher must have Irish. It is Irish by the way and not Gaelic.

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pilib04 | Feb 04, 2012, 09:39 PM EST
gobdawpaddy, ireland does not need english teachers. gaelic teachers yes, english no. what you are experiencing is the use of the fbomb as an adjective. this has been going on for a very long time in ireland.

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pilib04 | Feb 04, 2012, 08:34 PM EST
The EU guarantees no borders. Americans don't understand the concept. No country is forcing Ireland to remain in the EU. No borders within the EU means just that. Any EU citizen can travel to any EU country for work or study.

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pilib04 | Feb 04, 2012, 08:33 PM EST
If you don't like the EU rules, leave the EU. But don't profit from EU membership and then complain about the rules.

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 04, 2012, 09:36 AM EST
Gobdaw thanks for your concern but it looks like you're misreading me. I guess you think that when I read some of the drivel posted here that I am cursing and frothing at the mouth. Couldn't be further from the reality. I enjoy kicking back at the Oirish here who only offer insult and abuse, never fair comment or rational argument. If I didn't find it fun I wouldn't do it. If one of these clowns throws the "racist" slur at me I'll toss it right back tenfold, but that doesn't mean I am hyperventilating when I do so. Think of it as like professional wrestling, it looks much fiercer than it really is. But like you I am a frequent visitor to Ireland. I hold Irish citizenship so I can walk right thru Immigration at Dublin Airport with the Poles, Pakis and Pitcairn Islanders. I find that the Irish people I have dealings with in Ireland are far smarter than the weird sample who post here. Too bad a small number of Oirish have tried to take over this site and shout down all who don't buy their claptrap. Though you're dead right about the truly impoverished vocabulary of what used to be considered an articulate and poetic nation. I blame a lot of Ireland's problems on the fact that the Irish abandoned their ancestral language. I am reminded on a character in Shakespeare who says "You taught me English and my profit on it is that I learned how to curse". Take it easy.

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gobdawpaddy | Feb 04, 2012, 07:17 AM EST
George, why get so excited about what transpires in Ireland and some of the backward thinking emanating on this site from certain posters from the oul sod? I have been in Ireland for the past week, one of several business related visits each year and I have learned to simply turn a blind eye to some of the idiosyncrasies and uncouth behavior that I encounter here. It has taken me a long time to acknowledge that they are a 'simple' race, with slightly antiquated thinking, but that is part of why I enjoy them. I have concluded that Ireland is seriously in need of english teachers. The vocabulary here is seriously lacking, as every sentence appears to require dropping the 'f' bomb, or the 'c' word and everybody seems to be a 'bx'. Relax a little George, sit back and have a chuckle at some of the comical 'contributions' from the usual suspects. It's not worth elevating your blood pressure over.

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Curitiba | Feb 03, 2012, 05:03 PM EST
The problem, George, is that there is no accepted co census as to what the definition of the word "Irish" is. Is it (as I believe), the national family of people who are are more closely related to each other due to their shared ancestry (despite being scattered over many lands) than they are to others that they share their country of residence with (despite these people being born in the same country as them.) I am almost certainly more closely related to you and Murph46 than I am to a Londoner whose ancestry goes back to Roman times or further, or a chap with parents of, say Indian origin. This is despite us quite probably being born in the same hospital ward. Or do you believe, as many seem to here that you have to be born in Ireland of parents of any nationality or simply turn up and say "I'm one of the New Irish". If it is the latter, then why bother having national borders at all, if your neighbouring countries share the same values. I love foreign cultures, and I am delighted for them to come and visit the UK and Ireland, as I love visiting their countries. But just because they are wonderful people, but is it wise to invite millions of them to abandon their homeland and take up residence in Ireland, any more than it is to encourage hundreds of thousands of Irish people to abandon their homeland and pitch up to somebody else's country and demand to be let in?

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Murph46 | Feb 03, 2012, 04:20 PM EST
George-please read my post under big brother and respond,I'd like your thoughts.

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 03, 2012, 03:05 PM EST
Curitba: Well said. I would quit posting here except for one thing. I believe that all the nonsensical Oirish posters here who love Albanians and Armenian migrants but hate Americans, who attack America yet obsessively post on an American-oriented forum, who whine about Irish people emigrating but want an Open Door to Ireland for every migrant from Mozambique to Moldova, who want more visas for Irish people here in the US so that the migrants in Ireland can have more room to take over, in short I believe that lunatics like curdexter and curpeter and the other Oirish here are in a minority in Ireland. All studies show, be they the plebiscite of some years ago or the different public opinion polls that have been undertaken, backed up by my own findings in my frequent trips to Ireland, all studies show that most Irish people want Ireland to remain the ancient homeland of the Irish people, the only such place that exists, that has ever existed, or that ever will exist. The opinion of such people is regularly censored and stifled in Ireland. If I had evidence that there was a relaxation of censorship in Ireland I'd quickly stop posting here--it is after all a time-consuming and unpleasant task, given the caliber of those who throw obscenities and vulgarities in my direction. But as long as the Irish voice is silenced I'll do what I can to fight censorship.

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Curitiba | Feb 03, 2012, 02:40 PM EST
The only Irish patriots left are the diaspora, George, but we can only sit back and watch this ship of fools throw away what is not not theirs to throw away. They are only the custodians of Ireland, they are supposed to be looking after it for future generations of Irish people, who given the current rate of emigration of natives and immigration of non-natives will probably never exist. Ireland is fast becoming the new Kaliningrad. There is a rush by Irish people born in Ireland to embrace oblivion in order to appear achingly PC to people who could not care less about them. "Didn't the Irish live in this country before us?" "Never heard of them. Are you sure you're not making this up?"

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Murph46 | Feb 03, 2012, 10:54 AM EST
Is a Hawaiian massage done with a pineapple?

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 03, 2012, 09:58 AM EST
"A trained nanny"---Ah, just the kind of highly skilled professional Ireland needs to import. Between that and her work as waitress (which she got tired of a year and a half ago) you can imagine how much taxes she contributed on minimum wage. Of course her paying taxes is irrelevant, since they go for the upkeep of the Irish state-- what should be calculated is what she paid in Social Insurance. Undoubtedly negligible. Is it any wonder that Ireland is broke and passing the begging bowl, when it spends well over a thousand dollars a month keeping this foreign migrant in Ireland? Why does the Irish state exist any more? It was founded to benefit the Irish people--it can have no other logical purpose, but it's not doing it. This woman is liable to live off the Irish taxpayer for the rest of her life, and of course the bill will double and treble when she starts producing offspring. No doubt about--the Irish are the biggest fools around. Irish Central will probably censor my post for saying that, but I won't join the Leprechaun chorus of people who don't tell the truth about Ireland.

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